Ficus americana

Ficus americana, commonly known as the West Indian laurel fig[3] or Jamaican cherry fig,[4] is a tree in the family Moraceae which is native to the Caribbean, Mexico in the north, through Central and South America south to southern Brazil. It is an introduced species in Florida, USA. The species is variable; the five recognised subspecies were previously placed in a large number of other species.

Ficus americana at Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden

Nature printed leaf, showing shape and venation

West Indian laurel fig
Ficus americana
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Moraceae
Genus:	Ficus
Subgenus:	F. subg. Urostigma
Species:	F. americana
Binomial name
Ficus americana Aubl. 1775, conserved name
Synonyms
Ficus perforata L. Ficus andicola Standl. Ficus archeri Standl. Ficus chaponensis Dugand Ficus chiribiquetensis Dugand Ficus chiriquiana (Miq.) Miq. Ficus chocoensis Dugand Ficus clusiifolia Schott Ficus corpulenta Pittier Ficus cundinamarcensis Dugand Ficus erratica Standl. Ficus estanislana Dugand Ficus eugeniifolia (Liebm.) Hemsl. Ficus fadyenii Miq. Ficus georgii Standl. & L.O. Williams Ficus gleasonii Standl. Ficus greiffiana Dugand Ficus grenadensis Warb. Ficus guianensis Desv. Ficus jacquiniifolia A.Rich. Ficus lehmannii Standl. Ficus liebmanniana (Miq.) Miq. Ficus machetana Dugand Ficus maitin Pittier Ficus maroana Pittier Ficus martinii Miq. Ficus mathewsii Miq.) Miq. Ficus mensalis Standl. Ficus metensis Dugand Ficus myriasycea Pittier Ficus niceforoi Dugand Ficus oblanceolata Rusby Ficus oerstediana (Miq.) Miq. Ficus omphalophora Warb. Ficus ovalifolia Pittier Ficus parkeriana (Miq.) Sandwith Ficus popayanensis Standl. Ficus rigidifolia Pittier Ficus sintenisii Warb. Ficus soatensis Dugand Ficus soatensis Dugand var. bogotensis Dugand Ficus sprucei Standl. Ficus subapiculata (Miq.) Miq. Ficus umbonigera Warb. Ficus vaupesana Dugand Ficus wilsonii Warb. Pharmacosycea parkeriana Miq. Urostigma eugeniaefolium Liebm. Urostigma eugeniifolium Liebm. Urostigma chiriquianum Miq. Urostigma liebmannianum Miq. Urostigma mathewsii Miq. Urostigma oerstedianum Miq. Urostigma subapiculatum Miq.[1] Uncertain names[2] Ficus anacardiifolia Kunth & C.D. Bouché Ficus arbutifolia Link Ficus consanguinea Kunth & C.D. Bouché Ficus fresnoensis Dugand Ficus periplocifolia Kunth & C.D. Bouché Ficus splendens Kunth & C.D. Bouché[1]

Description

Ficus americana is a shrub or tree which grows up to 30 m (100 ft) tall.[5]

Taxonomy

With about 750 species, Ficus (Moraceae) is one of the largest angiosperm genera (ranked the 31st largest by David Frodin of Chelsea Physic Garden).[6] Ficus americana is classified in the subgenus Urostigma (the strangler figs) and the section Americana.[1] Recent molecular phylogenies have shown that subgenus Urostigma is polyphyletic, but have strongly supported the validity of section Americana as a discrete group (although its exact relationship to section Galoglychia is unclear).[7]

Both Aublet and Linnaeus published descriptions of this species in 1775, basing them on an illustration of Charles Plumier's published posthumously in Plantarum americanarum, quas olim Carolus Plumierus detexit (Amsterdam, 1755–1760). There is uncertainty was to which version was published first; since the first-published description has priority, there was confusion as to which was the proper name for the species—F. americana Aubl. or F. perforata L. To resolve this, Cornelis Berg proposed in 2003 that Aublet's name be conserved over Linnaeus', since it was more widely used.[8] This proposal was accepted "after lengthy discussion".[9]

Five subspecies are currently recognised: F. americana Aubl. subsp. americana, F. americana Aubl. subsp. andicola (Standl.) C.C. Berg, F. americana Aubl. subsp. greiffiana (Dugand) C.C. Berg, F. americana Aubl. subsp. guianensis (Desv.) C.C. Berg, and F. americana Aubl. subsp. subapiculata (Miq.) C.C. Berg.[1]

Reproduction

Figs have an obligate mutualism with fig wasp (Agaonidae); figs are only pollinated by fig wasps, and fig wasps can only reproduce in fig flowers. Generally, each fig species depends on a single species of wasp for pollination. The wasps are similarly dependent on their fig species in order to reproduce.

Figs in section Americana of subgenus Urostigma are pollinated by wasps in the genus Pegoscapus. Pegoscapus clusiifolidis was described from Ficus clusiifolia[10] (a synonym of F. americana). Another study refers to P. insularis as the pollinator of F. perforata [11] (another synonym of F. americana). That study also found that P. insularis represented a cryptic species complex.[11]

Distribution

Ficus americana is found throughout the Caribbean, from the Bahamas south to Trinidad and Tobago. It occurs in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.[1] It has been introduced to Florida, USA and has escaped from cultivation in Miami-Dade County.[3]

Ecology

Figs are sometimes considered to be potential keystone species in communities of fruit-eating animals; their asynchronous fruiting patterns may cause them to be important fruit sources when other food sources are scarce.[12] At Tinigua National Park in Colombia Ficus americana was an important fruit producer during periods of fruit scarcity in two of three years. This led Colombian ecologist Pablo Stevens to consider it a potential keystone species at that site.[13]

The interaction between figs and fig wasps is especially well-known (see section on reproduction, above). In addition to their pollinators, Ficus species are exploited by a group of non-pollinating chalcidoid wasps whose larvae develop in its figs. Both pollinating and non-pollinating wasps serve as hosts for parasitoid wasps.[14] In addition to Pegoscapus pollinators, non-pollinating wasps belonging to the genera Heterandrium, Aepocerus and Idarnes were found in F. americana figs in Brazil.[10]

References

1. Berg, C.C. (2007). "Proposals for treating four species complexes in Ficus subgenus Urostigma section Americanae (Moraceae)". Blumea. 52 (2): 295–312. doi:10.3767/000651907X609034.
2. Berg notes: "The quality of the types for [these] names ... is such that their identity remains uncertain."
3. "Ficus americana Aublet, Hist. Pl. Guiane. 952. 1775". Flora of North America. eFloras.org. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
4. USDA, NRCS. "Ficus americana Aubl". The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
5. DeWolf, Gordon P., Jr. 1960. Ficus (Tourn.) L. In Lorin I. Nevling, Jr., Flora of Panama. Part IV. Fascicle II. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 47 (2):81–203
6. Frodin, David G. (2004). "History and concepts of big plant genera". Taxon. 53 (3): 753–76. doi:10.2307/4135449. JSTOR 4135449.
7. Rønsted, N.; Weiblen, G. D.; Clement, W. L.; Zerega, N. J. C.; Savolainen, V. (2008). "Reconstructing the phylogeny of figs (Ficus, Moraceae) to reveal the history of the fig pollination mutualism" (PDF). Symbiosis. 45 (1–3): 45–56.
8. Berg, Cornelis C. (May 2003). "(1587–1590) Proposals to conserve the names Ficus citrifolia against F. caribaea, F. maxima with a conserved type, F. aurea against F. ciliolosa, and F. americana against F. perforata (Moraceae)". Taxon. 52 (2): 368–370. doi:10.2307/3647421. JSTOR 3647421.
9. Brummitt, R.K. (November 2005). "Report of the Committee for Spermatophyta: 57". Taxon. 54 (4): 1093–1103. doi:10.2307/25065499. JSTOR 25065499.
10. Schiffler, Gustavo; Celso Oliviera Azevedo; Ricardo Kawada (2002). "Agaonidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) associados a sicônios de Ficus clusiifolia (Moraceae) da restinga de Três Praias, Guarapari, Espírito Santo, Brasil" (PDF). Boletim do Museu de Biologia Mello Leitão. Nova Série. 14: 5–12.
11. Molbo, Drude; Carlos A. Machado; Jan G. Sevenster; Laurent Keller; Edward Allen Herre (2003). "Cryptic species of fig-pollinating wasps: Implications for the evolution of the fig–wasp mutualism, sex allocation, and precision of adaptation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 100 (10): 5867–72. doi:10.1073/pnas.0930903100. PMC 156293. PMID 12714682.
12. Terborgh, John (1986). "Keystone plant resources in the tropical forests". In Soulé, M.E. (ed.). Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates. pp. 330–344. ISBN 978-0-87893-795-0.
13. Stevenson, Pablo (2005). "Potential Keystone Plant Species for the Frugivore Community at Tinigua Park, Colombia". In J. Lawrence Dew; Jean Philippe Boubli (eds.). Tropical Fruits and Frugivores: The Search for Strong Interactors. Springer Netherlands. pp. 37–57. doi:10.1007/1-4020-3833-X. ISBN 978-1-4020-3833-4.
14. Kjellberg, Finn; Emmanuelle Jousselin; Martine Hossaert-McKey; Jean-Yves Rasplus (2005). "Biology, ecology and evolution of fig-pollinating wasps (Chalcidoidea, Agaonidae)" (PDF). In A. Raman; Carl W. Schaefer; Toni M. Withers (eds.). Biology, Ecology, and Evolution of Gall-inducing Arthropods. Enfield (NH) USA, Plymouth, UK: Science publishers, Inc. pp. 539–572. ISBN 978-1-57808-262-9.