Cluster Fig
Ficus racemosa

Family: Moraceae

What it is like

Ficus racemosa is a deciduous Tree growing to 12 m (39ft) by 12 m (39ft) at a fast rate. See above for USDA hardiness. It is hardy to UK zone 10. The flowers are pollinated by Wasps. Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: mildly acid, neutral and basic (mildly alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers moist soil.

Height (m): 12

Where it is found

In open, deciduous forest, common along river banks in lowlands. Moist areas, beside rivers and streams, occasionally in streams at elevations of 100 - 1,700 metres in southern China.

E. Asia - Southern China, Indian subcontinent, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia.

Conservation Status: This taxon has not yet been assessed

Countries/locations it is found in

Africa, Asia, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, East Africa, East Timor, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hawaii, Himalayas, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Africa, Northeastern India, Pacific, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, SE Asia, Sikkim, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, USA, Vietnam,

How it is used

Food

Rating: 3

Fruit - raw or cooked. Sweet, but rather insipid. They are used in various preserves and side-dishes. Unripe fruits are pickled and used in soups. The fruit can be dried and ground into a flour then eaten with sugar and milk. The powder from roasted fruits forms a valuable breakfast food. In times of scarcity, the unripe fruit is pounded, mixed with flour and made into cakes. The fruit is up to 25mm in diameter. The leaves are eaten as vegetable. Young shoots are eaten raw or cooked. The roots can be cut to provide a liquid that can be drunk as water.

Root: includes bulbs, corms, tubers, rhizomes etc.

Drink: not including plant saps, tea or coffee substitutes.

Medicine

Rating: 2

The leaves are used in the treatment of diarrhoea. The bark is astringent. It is used in the treatment of haematuria, menorrhagia, and haemoptysis. The fruit is astringent. It is used in the treatment of haematuria, menorrhagia, and haemoptysis. The fruit, when filled with sugar, is considered to be very cooling. A fluid that exudes from the cut roots of the tree is considered to be a powerful tonic when drunk for several days together. The sap is a popular remedy in Bombay, that is applied locally to mumps and other inflammatory glandular enlargements, and is also used in the treatment of gonorrhoea. The root is chewed as a treatment for tonsilitis.

Antidiarrhoeal: Provides symptomatic relief for diarrhoea. Also see Astringent.

Antiinflammatory: Reduces inflammation of joints, injuries etc.

Astringent: Produces contraction in living tissue, reducing the flow of secretions and discharges of blood, mucus, diarrhoea etc.

Refrigerant: Cools the body.

Tonic: Improves general health. Slower acting than a stimulant, it brings steady improvement.

Other

Rating: 2

Agroforestry Uses: The tree is cultivated to provide shade for coffee trees. It is used for slope, gully and river bank stabilization because it produces a deep and wide-spreading root system. The leaves provide a valuable mulch. Other Uses: Used as a rootstock for the common fig, Ficus carica. The bark contains tannin. The latex is used in the production of water-resistant paper and as plasticizer for Hevea rubber. The straw-coloured wood is coarse-grained, light in weight, soft, and porous. It is not a durable wood, though it lasts well under water, and hence is used for well frames. The wood is used for low-quality purposes and items such as minor construction, cheap furniture, packing cases, mouldings, laundry tubs, fruit crates etc. The wood is used as a fuel.

Containers: Plants, such as gourds, that can be used as containers. Does not include baskets or containers made from wood.

Fodder: Food given to the animals (including plants cut and carried to them) rather than forage for themselves.

Fuel: Usually wood, plant materials that have been mentioned as being a good fuel.

Furniture: A few miscellaneous uses that do not fit easily into other headings.

Latex: A source of rubber.

Paper: Related to the entry for Fibre, these plants have been specifically mentioned for paper making.

Rootstock: Plants used as the rootstock for grafting scions onto.

Soil stabilization: Plants that can be grown in places such as sand dunes in order to prevent erosion by wind, water or other agents.

Tannin: An astringent substance obtaied from plants, it is used medicinally, as a dye and mordant, stabilizer in pesticide etc.

Wood: A list of the trees and shrubs that are noted for having useful wood.

Agroforestry Services: Crop shade: Plants providing crop shade especially trees.

Fodder: Insect: Plants grown for useful fodder insects.

Industrial Crop: Hydrocarbon: Materials, chemicals and energy include bioplastics, rubber, biomass products gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, butane, propane, biogas. Plants are usually resprouting plants and saps.

Management: Standard: Plants grow to their standard height. Harvest fruit, seeds, or other products. Non-Destructive management systems.

Regional Crop: These crops have been domesticated and cultivated regionally but have not been adopted elsewhere and are typically not traded globally, Examples in this broad category include perennial cottons and many nuts and staple fruits.

Agroforestry Services: Crop shade: Plants providing crop shade especially trees.

Fodder: Insect: Plants grown for useful fodder insects.

Industrial Crop: Hydrocarbon: Materials, chemicals and energy include bioplastics, rubber, biomass products gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, butane, propane, biogas. Plants are usually resprouting plants and saps.

Management: Standard: Plants grow to their standard height. Harvest fruit, seeds, or other products. Non-Destructive management systems.

Regional Crop: These crops have been domesticated and cultivated regionally but have not been adopted elsewhere and are typically not traded globally, Examples in this broad category include perennial cottons and many nuts and staple fruits.

Carbon Farming: Plants that can be a critical part of the solution to climate problems. The Carbon Farming Solution - Eric Toensmeier.

Food Forest: Plants for Edible Forest Gardens and Food Forests.

How it is grown

Ficus species are common and form an important element of lowland rain forest, both as canopy and understorey trees. Most species prefer per-humid forest, but several are found in areas with a monsoon climate and in teak forest, including locations where the soil dries out. Succeeds in full sun to partial shade. Succeeds in most soils that are reasonably moist but well-drained. Cluster fig is resistant to fire. Fig trees have a unique form of fertilization, each species relying on a single, highly specialized species of wasp that is itself totaly dependant upon that fig species in order to breed. The trees produce three types of flower; male, a long-styled female and a short-styled female flower, often called the gall flower. All three types of flower are contained within the structure we usually think of as the fruit. The female fig wasp enters a fig and lays its eggs on the short styled female flowers while pollinating the long styled female flowers. Wingless male fig wasps emerge first, inseminate the emerging females and then bore exit tunnels out of the fig for the winged females. Females emerge, collect pollen from the male flowers and fly off in search of figs whose female flowers are receptive. In order to support a population of its pollinator, individuals of a Ficus spp. Must flower asynchronously. A population must exceed a critical minimum size to ensure that at any time of the year at least some plants have overlap of emmission and reception of fig wasps. Without this temporal overlap the short-lived pollinator wasps will go locally extinct.

Propagating it: Seed - germinates best at a temperature around 20°c. Air layering. Tip cuttings around 4 - 12cm long, taken from lateral branches.

Best place to grow:

Habit: Tree

Hardiness: 9-12

Growth: Fast

Soil: Light (sandy), medium, heavy (clay)

Shade: Semi-shade, no shade

Moisture: Moist

Things to keep in mind

The sap is poisonous and should not be ingested, it can also cause skin irritations so wear gloves when pruning and if you get sap on your skin rinse off immediately with water.

Its other names

Local names

Adam, Adumbra, Anai, Arah, Athi, Attikka, Attimara, Batbar, Blue fig, Co dua, Country fig, Cowarah, Crattock, Daduri, Dermi, Dimeri, Dhumbru khausa, Dumri, Dumur, Elo, Goolar, Gular, Jagadumur, Jagana gulo, Jagya dimoru, Jagya dumur, Ju guo rong, Lelka, Loa, Loa dari, Lo, Loh, Lovie thom, Madier, Maduea-uthumpon, Palak, Pale, Pohon ara kalimera, Red river fig, Redwood fig, Stem-fruit fig, Sung, Tak:piang, Tang bule, Thei-chek, Thei thot, Trimbal, Umar, Umber, Umri, Plaksha, Kahimal, Kaim, Keol, Pakar, Pakur, Bassari, Dhedumbara, Gandhaumbara, Pepri, Badijuvvi, Jati, Jovi, Kallal, Kurugatti, Suvi, Basari, Juvvi, Kari-basari, Bakri, Chakkila, Chela.

Synonyms

Covellia glomerata (Roxb.) Miq. Covellia lanceolata (Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Miq. Covellia mollis Miq. Ficus acidula King Ficus chittagonga Miq. Ficus glomerata Roxb. Ficus henrici King Ficus lanceolata Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb. Ficus leucocarpa (Miq.) Miq. Ficus lucescens Blume Ficus mollis (Miq.) Miq. Ficus semicostata F.M.Bailey Ficus trichocarpa glabrescens Engl. Ficus vesca F.Muell. ex Miq.