Ficus microcarpa L.f. - MORACEAE

Synonym : Ficus retusa L.

Vernacular names : Tamil: KalichiMalayalam: Ithi; Ithiyal; Kallithi

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large trees with aerial roots, beginning as epiphytic later become strangler and independent.
Trunk & Bark : Bark grey, lenticellate; blaze yellowish.
Branches and branchlets : Branchlets subterete, glabrous, lenticellate, with short internodes.
Exudates : Latex white, profuse.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipules to 1.5 cm long, lanceolate, subglabrous, caducous leaving annular scar; petiole 0.5-2 cm long, canaliculate, glabrous; lamina 2.5-11 x1.5-6 cm, elliptic, elliptic-obovate, apex shortly acuminate with blunt tip or obtuse, base cuneate or acute, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous; midrib flat above; suprabasally 3-nerved (two lateral nerves reaches half way or more), secondary_nerves 4-9 pairs; tertiary_nerves admedially ramified.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence syconia, sessile, in axillary pairs, globose, 0.7 cm across, glabrous; flowers unisexual.
Fruit and Seed : Syconium, to 1 cm across, globose, glabrous, yellowish with brown dots when ripe; achenes smooth.

Ecology :

In disturbed evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests up to 1200 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia to Pacific Islands and south China; in the Western_Ghats- throughout.

Literatures :

Suppl. Pl. 442. 1781; Gamble, Fl. Madras 3: 1362. 1998 (re.ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 440. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 118. 1984; Cook, Fl. Bombay 2: 647. 1902; Almeida, Fl. Maharashtra 4b: 369. 2003.

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