Ficus benjamina
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Description
The bark of the tree is pale gray and smooth when young, but becomes rough and fissured as the tree matures. Branches are drooping and pendulous. The stems exude white latex. The leaves are alternate, simple, 5-13 x 2-6 cm, leathery, elliptical in shape with acute tips and entire margins. The leaves are dark green and glossy on the upper surface and lighter green beneath. Petioles are 1-2.5 cm long. The leaf has two membranous, narrow, deciduous stipules, 6-12 mm long. The inflorescence (fig or syconium) is spherical to egg-shaped, shiny green, 1.5 cm in diameter, with many minute flowers inserted on inner wall of hollow receptacle that communicates with outside through an apical pore. There are male, sterile female and female flowers in each fig. The whole inflorescence becomes a false fruit, in which the flowers and seeds grow together to form a single mass inside a closed receptacle. The ripe fruit is orange-red and 2.0 to 2.5 cm in diameter.
Growing form
Medium to large-sized tree, up to 30 m high, with a dense, wide canopy.
The map represents observations of this taxon, but it may not be used as a distribution map.
- Total squares
- limoviikuna (Finnish)
- Jouko Rikkinen
- MVL.343