Ficus sarmentosa

Species: Ficus sarmentosa

English Name: Impressed Sarmentose Fig

Chinese Name: 爬藤榕

Family: Moraceae

Description:

Shrubs or woody vines. Branchlets grayish white when dry, rugose, glabrous, subglabrous, or densely white-hairy. Stipules lanceolate-ovate, ca. 8 mm, thinly membranous. Leaves distichous; petiole ca. 1 cm, subglabrous; leaf blade ovate, ovate-elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, lanceolate, or oblong, 8-12 × 3-4 cm, ± leathery, both surfaces glabrous or abaxially sparsely brown pubescent, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin entire, apex acute to acuminate; secondary veins 4-12 on each side of midvein, and abaxially slightly raised, tertiary veins honeycomblike. Figs axillary on leafy or on leafless branchlets, solitary or occasionally paired, blackish purple when mature, globose, ± globose, or conic, sometimes slightly depressed, 0.5-2 cm in diam., glabrous, sparsely pubescent, or densely covered with brown hairs, inside with bristles, apical pore slightly concave, sessile or pedunculate; peduncle 0.5-1.5 cm or shorter; involucral bracts triangular, triangular-ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, 2-6 mm, with scattered bristles. Male flowers: near apical pore, pedicellate; calyx lobes 3 or 4, oblanceolate; stamens 2; filaments very short; anthers mucronate. Gall flowers: pedicellate; calyx lobes 4, obovate-spatulate; ovary elliptic; style short; stigma shallowly funnelform. Female flowers: pedicellate; calyx lobes spatulate; ovary obovate; style subapical; stigma thin and long. Achenes ovoid-ellipsoid, with adherent liquid. Fl. May-Jul.

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