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climbing fig, creeping fig

common fig, edible fig, fiku, piku

Habit Shrubs or small trees, deciduous, to 5 m.
Roots

adventitious, nodal.

not adventitious.

Bark

grayish, slightly roughened.

Branches

appressed-pubescent when young, glabrous in age.

Branchlets

pubescent.

Leaves

blade oblong to ovate-elliptic or obovate, 4-10 × 2.5-4.5 cm, those of appressed climbing stems distichous, appressed, smaller (than those of loose, extended, flowering stems), spreading, leathery, base obtuse to rounded, margins recurved, apex obtuse to nearly acute;

surfaces abaxially glabrous or puberulent on veins, adaxially glabrous, prominently reticulate;

basal pair of veins 1;

lateral pairs of veins 3-6, straight;

secondary veins prominent.

blade obovate, nearly orbiculate, or ovate, palmately 3-5-lobed, 15-30 × 15-30 cm, base cordate, margins undulate or irregularly dentate, apex acute to obtuse;

surfaces abaxially and adaxially scabrous-pubescent;

basal veins 5 pairs;

lateral veins irregularly spaced.

Woody

vines or sprawling shrubs, vines closely appressed to substrate, shrubs loosely ascending, evergreen.

Syconia

solitary, pedunculate, green, oblong, obovoid, pyriform, or nearly globose, 3-4 × 3-4 cm, slightly pubescent but becoming glabrescent in age;

peduncle thick, 8-15 mm; subtending bracts ovate, 5-7 mm;

ostiole closed by 3 bracts, umbonate.

solitary, sessile, green, yellow, or red-purple, pyriform, 5-8 cm, pubescent;

peduncle ca. 1 cm; subtending bracts ovate, 1-2 mm;

ostiole with 3 subtending bracts, umbonate.

Ficus pumila

Ficus carica

Phenology Flowering all year. Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Disturbed thickets Disturbed sites
Elevation 0-10 m (0-0 ft) 0-300 m (0-1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; native to s Asia; se Asia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; FL; MA; NC; SC; Mexico; West Indies; native to Asia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Ficus pumila is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental on walls.

Ficus scandens Lamarck is a nomenclaturally illegitimate name.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Ficus carica is known to escape in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, although no specific localities are documented.

Ficus carica was first known from Caria in southwestern Asia. It is cultivated for its edible fruit and becomes established outside of cultivation only sporadically in the United States. It can sometimes be found persisting around old habitations and old orchards.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Moraceae > Ficus Moraceae > Ficus
Sibling taxa
F. americana, F. aurea, F. benghalensis, F. benjamina, F. carica, F. citrifolia, F. elastica, F. microcarpa, F. religiosa
F. americana, F. aurea, F. benghalensis, F. benjamina, F. citrifolia, F. elastica, F. microcarpa, F. pumila, F. religiosa
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1060. (1753) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1059. (1753)
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