Difference between revisions of "Ficus"
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| + | Ficus (ancient Latin name). Moraceae. The fig, the India rubber plant, the banyan tree and the creeping fig of conservatory walls belong to this vast and natural genus, which has over 600 species scattered through the warmer regions of the world. | ||
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| + | Ficus has no near ally of garden value. It is a genus of trees or shrubs, often climbers, with milky juice. In the common fig the lvs. are deeply lobed, but in most of the other species they are entire or else the margin is wavy or has a few teeth or an occasional small lobe. The lvs. are nearly always alternate, F. hispida being the only species of those described below which has opposite lvs. The foliage in Ficus varies from leathery to membranous, and is variable in venation, so the veins are very helpful in telling the species apart. Ficus is monoecious or rarely dioecious, the apetalous or sometimes naked minute fls. being borne inside a hollow more or less closed receptacle ; stamens 1—3, with short and united filaments ; pistillate fls. with 1- celled sessile ovary, ripening into an achene that is buried in the receptacle. What the horticulturist calls the fig, or fruit, is the fleshy receptacle, while the fruit of the botanist is the seed inside (Fig. 1500). In the following account, fruit is used instead of receptacle. | ||
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| + | The fertilization or caprification of the fig is one of the most interesting and complicated chapters in natural history, and is of great practical importance. See Fig, where the culture of F. carica is discussed. | ||
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| + | The most important ornamental plant in the genus is the India rubber plant (F. elastica), which ranks amongst the most popular foliage plants for home use indoors. This is not the most important rubber-producing plant, both Hevea brasiliensis and Castilla elastica being producers of more and finer rubber. | ||
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| + | The creeping fig (F. pumila, better known as F. repens or F. stipulata) is one of the commonest and best climbers for covering conservatory walls. It clings close and makes a dense mat of foliage, which is about as dark in color as the English ivy. The plant has been cultivated since 1771, but within the last half-century has come to be recognized as the best plant for its special purpose. Once in a long while it fruits in conservatories, and the fruiting branches arc very unlike the barren ones. They stand out from the conservatory wall instead of lying flat and close. The leaves of the barren branches are less than an inch long and heart-shaped, with one side longer than the other at the base and a very short petiole; the leaves of fruiting branches are 2 to 3 inches long, elliptic-oblong, narrowed at the base, and with a petiole sometimes ½ inch long (Fig. 1501). | ||
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| + | Among the many wonders of the genus Ficus are the epiphytal habit of some, the huge spread of the banyan tree (F. benghalensis), and the fact that some species ripen their fruits under ground. Some of the tallest tropical trees are members of this genus, and often they begin life by climbing upon other trees. The ficus often overtops and outlives the other tree, which may be seen in every stage of decay, or may have entirely disappeared, leaving the giant climber twined spirally around a great hollow cylinder. The banyan tree sends down some of its branches (or aerial roots) into the soil, these take root, make new trunks, and eventually produce a great forest, in which it is impossible to tell the original trunk. The banyan in the botanic gardens at Calcutta sprang from a seed probably dropped by a passing bird into the crown of a date palm a little more than a century ago. The main trunk not many years ago, was 42 feet in circumference, with 232 additional trunks, many of them 8 to 10 feet in circumference, and the branches extend over an area 850 feet in circumference, forming a dense evergreen canopy through which sunlight never penetrates. The banyan under which Alexander camped, and which is said to have sheltered 7,000 men, now measures 2,000 ft. in circumference and has 3,000 trunks. Other species have the same method of propagation, but F. benghalensis is the most famous. | ||
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| + | The various species are cultivated both indoors northward and as shade and fruit trees in Florida and California. In this country the most important commercially is the fig, Ficus carica, now widely grown in California. For the botanical treatment of this difficult genus recourse has been had to King's "The species of the Indo-Malayan and Chinese countries" in Ann. Bot. Card. Calcutta 1:185 pp. +232 plates, 1888, and wherever possible below reference is made to the splendid illustrations of that work, thus, K. 130.= King, plate 130. For the African species the recent treatment of Mildbraed and Burret on Die afrikanischen Arten der Gattung Ficus. Engler's Bot. Jahrb. 46:163-269 (1911), has been consulted. | ||
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| + | The cultivation of Ficus elastica. (H. A. Siebrecht.) | ||
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| + | The rubber plant (Ficus elastica) which is known all over this country, is perhaps the most popular and satisfactory house plant that has ever been cultivated. It Is a plant for the million. Some florists have several houses especially devoted to the propagation and cultivation of this tough and thrifty plant. There are also thousands upon thousands of young plants or rooted cuttings from thumb-pots imported into this country, especially from Belgium and Holland, for marketing every spring. It is estimated that from 80,000 to 100,000 rubber plants are sold in America in a single year. There are several varieties of the rubber plant, but the true Ficus elastica is the best, both for growing and for selling. It can be easily told from the smaller-leaved variety, which is smaller and lighter colored in all its parts, the stem being smoother, and the sheath that covers the young leaves lacking the brown tint, which often runs into a bright Indian red. | ||
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| + | The method of propagating now popular in America employs old bushy stock-plants, either in pots or tubs, or planted out into a bed where the night temperature can be kept from 60° to 75° F. As soon as the young shoots are 5 to 6 inches long they are operated upon. An incision is made at the place where it is intended to root the young plant, cutting upward on a slant midway between two eyes, making the cut anywhere from 1 to 2 inches long, according to the thickness and length of the young shoot or branch. A small wedge, as a piece of match, is then inserted to keep the cut open. A large handful of clean, damp, well-prepared moss is then placed around the branch to cover the cut and is tied moderately firm with twine or raffia. Some use a small piece of charcoal for a wedge in the cut; others coat the two cuts with a mixture of charcoal dust and lime. The latter practice is beneficial in that it expedites the callusing of the cuts and the rooting of the young plant after being cut and mossed. The moss should be kept constantly moist, and the higher the temperature, within reasonable limits, the quicker the rooting process goes on. The roots of the young plant usually appear on the outside of the oval-shaped bunch of moss. A complete cut can then be made below the moss and the young plant potted. The smaller the pot at first the better. The leaves of the young plants should be tied up in order that they may not be injured by coming in contact with one another or by lying flat on the pots. The young plants now require a gentle bottom heat and frequent syringing,—a dozen times on clear days. As soon as the young plants are taken from the stock-plant, a little wax should be put on the end of the cut to prevent the milky sap from escaping. The best time of the year to propagate and root ficus is from the first of January to May.' The European growers never start much before the Christmas holidays; and ' from then until spring they make all their cuttings. | ||
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| + | The older method of propagating rubber plants is still the favorite one abroad; it employs single-eye cuttings. Sometimes, if the branches are very thick, only one-half the stem is taken with the eye and a single leaf, the leaf being curled up and tied with raffia, and the small piece with the eye set into the propagating-bed. This is a bed of sharp sand, or sometimes of sand and chopped sphagnum moss or fine cocoa-fiber. Frequently the single- eye cuttings are put at once into the smallest-sized thumb-pot,; with a mixture of very finely ground potsherd and charcoal filling about one- half the pot, and either soil or sand for the remainder. A small stick is used to hold the leaf upright. These pots are plunged into the propagating-benches in either sand, moss or fiber, and a steady bottom heat of 75° to 80° is applied and kept up until the plants are rooted. As a rule, such beds are inclosed in a glasshouse, in order to keep about them a close, warm and moist atmosphere. Only ventilation enough to permit the moisture caused by the evaporation to escape is allowed on these beds. In this country, propagation by the first described method can be continued nearly all the year round. From experience of both methods, the writer can say that the top-cutting and mossing process is better by far, especially where plenty of stock plants can be maintained. | ||
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| + | After being shifted from the smaller-sized pots into 3- or 4-inch pots, the young plants will stand a great deal of liquid manure as soon as they are rooted through or become somewhat pot-bound. Many propagators plant out the young plants from 3- and 4-inch pots into coldframes after the middle of May, or when all danger of night frost is past. They do very well in the bright, hot, open sun, but must receive plenty of water. After being planted out in frames, they should be potted not later than September, and for early marketing as early as August. The plan of planting out and potting in the later part of summer or early autumn is a very practicable one, as the plants do not suffer so much from the severe heat during the summer. | ||
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Revision as of 08:58, 7 August 2009
Read about Ficus in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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{{{1}}} The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text. |
Template:Nutritionalvalue Template:Nutritionalvalue
Ficus is a genus of about 800 species of woody trees, shrubs and vines in the family Moraceae, native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the warm temperate zone. The most well known species in the genus is the Common Fig.
One species of this genus, the Common Fig (F. carica), produces a commercial fruit called a fig; the fruit of many other species are edible though not widely consumed. Other examples of figs include the banyans and the Sacred Fig (Peepul or Bo) tree. Most species are evergreen, while some from temperate areas, and areas with a long dry season, are deciduous.
Fruit and pollination
The fig is commonly thought of as fruit, but it is properly the flower of the fig tree. It is in fact a false fruit or multiple fruit, in which the flowers and seeds grow together to form a single mass.
The genus Dorstenia, also in the fig family (Moraceae), exhibits similar tiny flowers arranged on a receptacle but in this case the receptacle is a more or less flat, open surface.
A fig "fruit" is derived from a specially adapted type of inflorescence (structural arrangement of flowers). What is commonly called the "fruit" of a fig is actually a specialized structure- or accessory fruit- called a syconium: an involuted (nearly closed) receptacle with many small flowers arranged on the inner surface. Thus the actual flowers of the fig are unseen unless the fig is cut open. In Chinese the fig is called 'fruit without flower'. The syconium often has a bulbous shape with a small opening (the ostiole) at the distal end that allows access by pollinators. The flowers are pollinated by very small wasps that crawl through the opening in search of a suitable place to reproduce (lay eggs). Without this pollinator service fig trees cannot reproduce by seed. In turn, the flowers provide a safe haven and nourishment for the next generation of wasps. Technically, a fig fruit would be one of many mature, seed-bearing flowers found inside one fig.
Most figs come in two sexes: hermaphrodite (called caprifigs from goats - Caprinae subfamily; as in fit for eating by goats; sometimes called "inedible") and female (the male flower parts fail to develop; produces the "edible" fig). Fig wasps grow in caprifigs but not in the other because the female trees' female flower part is too long for the wasp to successfully lay her eggs in them. Nonetheless, the wasp pollinates the flower with pollen from the fig it grew up in, so figs with developed seeds also contain dead fig wasps almost too tiny to see.
When a caprifig ripens, another caprifig must be ready to be pollinated. Tropical figs bear continuouslyTemplate:Fact, enabling fruit-eating animals to survive the time between mast years. In temperate climes, wasps hibernate in figs, and there are distinct crops. Caprifigs have three crops per year; edible figs have two. The first of the two is small and is called breba; the breba figs are olynths. Some selections of edible figs do not require pollination at all, and will produce a crop of figs (albeit without fertile seeds) in the absence of caprifigs or fig wasps.
There is typically only one species of wasp capable of fertilizing the flowers of each species of fig, and therefore plantings of fig species outside of their native range results in effectively sterile individuals. For example, in Hawaii, some 60 species of figs have been introduced, but only four of the wasps that fertilize them have been introduced, so only four species of figs produce viable seeds there.
Propagation
Figs are also easily propagated from cuttings. An extraordinarily large self-rooted Wild Willowleaf Fig in South Africa is protected by the Wonderboom Nature Reserve.
Historical significance
In June 2006, it was reported that figs dating back 11,400 years were discovered at Gilgal I, a village in the Lower Jordan Valley, just 8 miles north of ancient Jericho.Template:Fact There is evidence that figs were among the first cultivated crop, because they were of a mutation which could not reproduce normally. It is proposed that they may have been planted and cultivated intentionally, one thousand years before the next crops were domesticated (wheat and rye).
The phallic shape of the young fig is referred to in Song of Songs chapter 2 verse 13. The fig tree is sacred to Dionysus Sukites (Συκίτης).
Figs were also a common foodsource for the Romans. Cato the Elder, in his De Agri Cultura, lists several strains of figs grown at the time he wrote his handbook: the Mariscan, African, Herculanean, Saguntine, and the black Tellanian (De agri cultura, ch. 8).
Figs and health
Figs are good source of flavonoids and polyphenols[1]. Figs and other dried fruit were measured for their antioxidant content. A 40 gram portion of dried figs (two medium size figs) produced significant increase in plasma antioxidant capacity [2]. Figs also have higher quantities of fiber than any other dried or fresh fruit.
See also
- List of fruits
- Moreton Bay Fig
- Fig Newton
- Miracles of Jesus – the Cursing of The Fig Tree
External links
- Figweb Major reference site for the genus Ficus
- Video: Interaction of figs and fig wasps Multi-award-winning documentary
- Fruits of Warm Climates: Fig
- California Rare Fruit Growers: Fig Fruit Facts
- North American Fruit Explorers: Fig
- BBC: Fig fossil clue to early farming
References
Gallery
<gallery> Image:Ficus variegata.JPG|Ficus variegata in Mongkok, Hong Kong.
