Species: Ficus benjamina
English Name: Benjamin Fig
Chinese Name: 垂葉榕
Family: Moraceae
Description:
Trees, to 20 m tall, crown wide, d.b.h. 30-50 cm. Bark gray to gray-white, smooth. Main branches producing aerial roots which can develop into new trunks; branchlets gray-white, pendulous, glabrous. Stipules caducous, lanceolate, 0.6-1.5 cm, membranous, glabrous. Petiole 1-2 cm, adaxially sulcate; leaf blade ovate to broadly elliptic, 4-8(-14) × 2-4(-8) cm, ± lea-thery, glabrous, base rounded to cuneate, margin entire, apex shortly acuminate; secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, parallel, anastomosing near margin, indistinct from tertiary veins. Figs axillary on leafy branchlets, paired or solitary, purple, red, or yellow [or red with white dots] when mature, globose to depressed globose or sometimes pear-shaped, 0.8-2 cm in diam., glabrous or pubescent, base attenuate into stalk, sessile; involucral bracts inconspicuous, triangular-ovate, glabrous, persistent. Male, gall, and female flowers within same fig. Male flowers: few, shortly pedicellate; calyx lobes (3 or)4, broadly ovate; stamen 1; filament rather long. Gall flowers: many; calyx lobes (3 or)4 or 5, narrowly spatulate; ovary ovoid, smooth; style ± lateral, short. Female flowers: sessile; calyx lobes 3, shortly spatulate; style ± lateral, short; stigma enlarged. Achenes ovoid-reniform, shorter than persistent style. Fl. Aug-Nov.
Photos used under a Creative Commons license
References:
– Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2003). Flora of China, Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis