Climbingfig

Parker, l.c. reports it to be grown in gardens in the plants for covering walls. The author has, however, seen no material from the flora area.

Ficus pumila is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental on walls.

Ficus scandens Lamarck is a nomenclaturally illegitimate name.

The position of Ficus pumila var. lutchuensis Koidzumi (Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 39: 14. 1925) is uncertain as no material has been seen by the authors. It most likely belongs to var. pumila.

A climber with clinging roots and white to brownish short hair on young shoots. Leaves dimorphic, with 8-25 mm long, villous to glabrescent petiole; lamina coriaceous, ovate-oblong, 4-10 cm long, 2.5-6 cm broad, 3-5-costate at the ± cordate base, entire, obtuse to subacute, glabrescent above, finely white-villous beneath, lateral nerves 3-6 pairs, strongly bulging below, intercostals present, slightly bulged; stipules appeased hairy. cystoliths present on lower side only. Hypanthodia on erect fruiting branches, generally solitary axillary, sessile to shortly pedunculate, subgloboae to pyriform or obovoid-turbinate, 2.5-5 cm long, 2-3 cm in diameter, greenish yellow, minutely villose to glabrescent, subtended by ovate-lanceolate, 5-7 mm long, appressed hairy basal bracts, apical orifice umbonate, internal bristles copious, short. 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, 3.5-7 cm long, purple-black, glabrous to glaucous.

Woody vines or sprawling shrubs , vines closely appressed to substrate, shrubs loosely ascending, evergreen. Roots adventitious, nodal. Branches appressed-pubescent when young, glabrous in age. Leaves dimorphic; stipules 0.3-0.8 cm; petiole 1.5-2 cm. Leaf blade oblong to ovate-elliptic or obovate, 4-10 × 2.5-4.5 cm, those of appressed climbing stems distichous, appressed, smaller (than those of loose, extended, flowering stems), spreading, leathery, base obtuse to rounded, margins recurved, apex obtuse to nearly acute; surfaces abaxially glabrous or puberulent on veins, adaxially glabrous, prominently reticulate; basal pair of veins 1; lateral pairs of veins 3-6, straight; secondary veins prominent. Syconia solitary, pedunculate, green, oblong, obovoid, pyriform, or nearly globose, 3-4 × 3-4 cm, slightly pubescent but becoming glabrescent in age; peduncle thick, 8-15 mm; subtending bracts ovate, 5-7 mm; ostiole closed by 3 bracts, umbonate.

Shrubs, climbers or scandent. Rooting branchlets sterile. Stipules lanceolate, with yellow brown silklike hairs. Leaves distichous, leaf blade on fertile branchlets different in shape than ones on sterile branches, ovate-cordate, ovate-elliptic, or oblong-ovate, 5-12 × 2-5 cm, abaxially pubescent, base rounded to slightly cordate, margin entire, apex obtuse, acute, or acuminate; veins conspicuous, honeycomblike; basal lateral veins elongated, secondary veins 3 or 4 on each side of midvein, abaxially prominent, and adaxially impressed. Figs axillary on normal leafy branches, solitary, yellowish green to pale red when mature, pear-shaped to ± globose or cylindric, 4-8 × 3-5 cm, shortly yellow pubescent when young, basally attenuate into a short stalk, apical pore truncate, navel-like, or acuminate; peduncle to ca. 1 cm, thick; involucral bracts triangular-ovate, densely covered with long pubescence, persistent. Male flowers: many, in several rows near apical pore, pedicellate; calyx lobes 2 or 3, linear; stamens 2; filaments short. Gall flowers: pedicellate; calyx lobes 3 or 4, linear; style lateral, short. Female flowers: pedicel long; calyx lobes 4 or 5; achenes ± globose, with adherent liquid. Fl. and fr. May-Aug.

China, Taiwan, Indo-China, Japan; widely cultivated elsewhere.

Distribution: A native of China and Japan, S.E. Asia; introduced elsewhere.

introduced; Fla.; native to s, se Asia.

1400 m

Flowering all year.

Disturbed thickets; 0-10m.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Vietnam].