Ficus pumila L.
| Family: | MORACEAE |
|
|||
| Sub-Family: | Not available | ||||
| English Name: | Creeping Fig | ||||
| Synonym: | Ficus scandens Lam. | ||||
| Common Name: | Climbing fig | ||||
| Flowering & Fruiting Period: | February-September | ||||
| Distribution: | Native of East Asia | ||||
| Habitat: | Introduced as a garden plant, also running wild | ||||
| Uses: | Fruit - used for the production of jams and jellies. The fruits and the leaves are considered to be galactagogue and tonic. Externally the leaves are applied to carbuncles. The plant is traditionally grown in living fences in the northwestern Himalayas, where it helps to exclude livestock and other animals; mark out land boundaries; whilst also providing a range of medicinal and other uses. Planted as a nematode-resistant rootstock for Ficuscarica. | ||||
| Key Characteristics: | A climber with clinging roots and white to brownish short hair on young shoots. Leaves dimorphic; lamina coriaceous, ovate-oblong.Hypanthodia on erect fruiting branches, generally solitary or axillary, sessile to shortly pedunculate, subglobose to pyriform or obovoid-turbinate, greenish yellow. Male flowers: Large, numerous, in several whorls; sepals 4-6; stamens 2-3. Female flowers: Sessile to long-pedicelled; ovary sessile with long, simple lateral style. Figs obovoid turbinate, purple-black, glabrous to glaucous. | ||||