Ficus verruculosa

Ficus verruculosa, the water fig, is a species of fig from sub-saharan Africa.

Ficus verruculosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Moraceae
Tribe: Ficeae
Genus: Ficus
Species:
F. verruculosa
Binomial name
Ficus verruculosa

It is found from north eastern South Africa, northern Botswana and Namibia to Uganda and west to Nigeria in riverine and swamp fringes or grassland, always near water.[1] It is pollinated by the wasp Platyscapa binghami.[2]

The growth form of Ficus verruculosa is as a shrub, or weak-stemmed, sparsely branched shrub 0.2-0.6 m tall, less often a small tree up to 12m, often forming low, creeping thickets. Leaves oblong to lanceolate, 3.5-20 x 1.5-8.5 cm, leathery, hairless. Figs are produced mostly in pairs in leaf axils, greenish when unripe, ripening to red[3] and are fed on by African green pigeons Treron calvus.[4]

References
  1. "Flora of Zimbabwe: Species information: Ficus verruculosa". www.zimbabweflora.co.zw. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  2. "Ficus verruculosa - FigWeb". www.figweb.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  3. CJB, CJB, DSIC, Cyrille Chatelain -. "CJB - African plant database - Detail". www.ville-ge.ch. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  4. "Fig-eating by vertebrate frugivores: a global review", Mike Shanahan, Samson So, Stephen G. Compton and Richard Corlett, Biological Reviews (2001), 76, pp. 529–572


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