Ficus aurea
Encyclopedia
Ficus aurea, commonly known as the Florida strangler fig (or simply strangler fig), golden fig, or higuerón, is a tree in the family Moraceae
that is native to the U.S. state of Florida
, the northern and western Caribbean
, southern Mexico
and Central America
south to Panama
. The specific epithet aurea was applied by English botanist Thomas Nuttall
who described the species in 1846. Older names applied to this species were later ruled invalid.
Ficus aurea is a strangler fig
. In fig
s of this type, seed germination usually takes place in the canopy of a host
tree with the seedling living as an epiphyte
until its roots establish contact with the ground, after which it enlarges and strangles its host, eventually becoming a freestanding tree in its own right. Individuals may reach 30 m (98.4 ft) in height. Like all figs, it has an obligate mutualism with fig wasp
s: figs are only pollinated by fig wasps, and fig wasps can only reproduce in fig flowers. The tree provides habitat, food and shelter for a host of tropical lifeforms including epiphytes in cloud forests and bird
s, mammal
s, reptile
s and invertebrate
s. F. aurea is used in traditional medicine
, for live fencing, as an ornamental
and as a bonsai
.
Ficus aurea is a tree which may reach heights of 30 m (98 ft). It is monoecious
: each tree bears functional male and female flowers. Fig
s are generally evergreen
, but F. aurea is briefly leafless in winter at the northern end of its range in Florida. The size and shape of the leaves is variable. Some plants have leaves that are usually less than 10 cm (4 in) long while others have leaves that are larger. The shape of the leaves
and of the leaf base also varies—some plants have leaves that are oblong or elliptic with a wedge-shaped to rounded base, while others have heart-shaped or ovate leaves with cordate to rounded bases. F. aurea has paired figs which are green when unripe, turning yellow as they ripen. They differ in size (0.6–0.8 cm [0.2–0.3 in], about 1 cm [0.4 in], or 1.0–1.2 cm [0.4–0.5 in] in diameter); figs are generally sessile
, but in parts of northern Mesoamerica
figs are borne on short stalks known as peduncles
.
(Moraceae
) is one of the largest angiosperm genera (David Frodin of Chelsea Physic Garden
ranked it as the 31st largest genus). Ficus aurea is classified in the subgenus
Urostigma (the strangler figs) and the section
Americana. 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).
Thomas Nuttall
described the species in the second volume of the his 1846 work The North American Sylva with specific epithet aurea ('golden' in Latin
). In 1768, Scottish botanist Philip Miller
described Ficus maxima
, citing Carl Linnaeus' Hortus Cliffortianus
(1738) and Hans Sloane
's Catalogus plantarum quæ in insula Jamaica (1696). Sloane's illustration of the species, published in 1725, depicted it with figs borne singly, a characteristic of the Ficus subgenus Pharmacosycea
. As a member of the subgenus Urostigma, F. aurea has paired figs. However, a closer examination of Sloane's description led Cornelis Berg to conclude that the illustration depicted a member of the subgenus Urostigma (since it had other diagnostic of that subgenus), almost certainly F. aurea, and that the illustration of singly borne figs was probably artistic license
. Berg located the plant collection upon which Sloane's illustration was based and concluded that Miller's F. maxima was, in fact, F. aurea. In his description of F. aurea, which was based on plant material collected in Florida, Thomas Nuttall considered the possibility that his plants belonged to the species that Sloane had described, but came to the conclusion that it was a new species. Under the rules of botanical nomenclature
, the name F. maxima has priority over F. aurea since Miller's description was published in 1768, while Nuttall's description was published in 1846.
In their 1914 Flora of Jamaica, William Fawcett
and Alfred Barton Rendle
linked Sloane's illustration to the tree species that was then known as Ficus suffocans, a name that had been assigned to it in August Grisebach
's Flora of the British West Indian Islands. Gordon DeWolf agreed with their conclusion and used the name F. maxima for that species in the 1960 Flora of Panama. Since this use has become widespread, Berg proposed that the name Ficus maxima be conserved
in the way DeWolf had used it, a proposal that was accepted by the nomenclatural committee.
Reassigning the name Ficus maxima did not leave F. aurea as the oldest name for this species, as German naturalist Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link
had described Ficus ciliolosa in 1822. Berg concluded that the species Link described was actually F. aurea, and since Link's description predated Nuttall's by 24 years, priority should have been given to the name F. ciliolosa. Since the former name was widely used and the name F. ciliolosa had not been, Berg proposed that the name F. aurea be conserved. In response to this, the nomenclatural committee ruled that rather than conserving F. aurea, that it would be better to reject F. ciliolosa. Conserving F. aurea would mean that precedence would be given to that name over all others. By simply rejecting F. ciliolosa, the committee left open the possibility that the name F. aurea could be supplanted by another older name, if one were to be discovered.
described three new species based on collections from Panama and Costa Rica—Ficus tuerckheimii, F. isophlebia and F. jimenezii. DeWolf concluded that they were all the same species, and Berg synonymised them with F. aurea. These names have been used widely for Mexican and Central American populations, and continue to be used by some authors. Berg suspected that Ficus rzedowskiana Carvajal and Cuevas-Figueroa may also belong to this species, but he had not examined the original material upon which this species was based.
Berg considered F. aurea to be a species with at least four morphs
. "None of the morphs", he wrote, "can be related to certain habitats or altitudes." Thirty years earlier, William Burger had come to a very different conclusion with respect to Ficus tuerckheimii, F. isophlebia and F. jimenezii—he rejected DeWolf's synonymisation of these three species as based on incomplete evidence. Burger noted that the three taxa occupied different habitats which could be separated in terms of rainfall and elevation.
s, (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. Ficus aurea is pollinated by Pegoscapus mexicanus
(Ashmead
).
Figs have complicated inflorescence
s called syconia
. Flowers are entirely contained within an enclosed structure. Their only connection with the outside is through a small pore called ostiole
. Monoecious figs like F. aurea have both male and female flowers within the syconium. Female flowers mature first. Once mature, they produce a volatile
chemical attractant. Female wasps squeeze their way through the ostiole into the interior of the syconium. Inside the syconium, they pollinate the flowers, lay their eggs in some of them, and die. The eggs hatch and the larvae parasitise the flowers in which they were laid. After four to seven weeks (in F. aurea), adult wasps emerge. Males emerge first, mate with the females, and cut exit holes through the walls of the fig. The male flowers mature around the same time as the female wasps emerge. The newly emerged female wasps actively pack their bodies with pollen from the male flowers before leaving through the exit holes the males have cut and fly off to find a syconium in which to lay their eggs. Over the next one to five days, figs ripen. The ripe figs are eaten by a variety of mammals and birds which disperse
the seeds.
s (animals that feed nearly exclusively on fruit); figs are one of the few fruit available at times of the year when fruit are scarce.
Although figs flower asynchronously as a population, in most species flowering is synchronised within an individual. Newly emerged female wasps must move away from their natal tree in order to find figs in which to lay their eggs. This is to the advantage of the fig, since it prevents self-pollination
. In Florida, individual F. aurea trees flower and fruit asynchronously. Within-tree asynchrony in flowering is likely to raise the probability of self-pollination, but it may be an adaptation that allows the species to maintain an adequate population of wasps at low population densities or in strongly seasonal climates.
Flowering phenology
in Ficus has been characterised into five phases. In most figs, phase A is followed almost immediately by phase B. However, in F. aurea immature inflorescences can remain dormant for more than nine months.
it germinates
in the canopy
of a host tree and begin life as an epiphyte
before growing roots down to the ground. F. aurea is also a strangler fig
(not all hemiepiphytic figs are stranglers)—the roots fuse
and encircle the host tree. This usually results in the death of the host tree, since it effectively girdles
the tree. Palms
, which lack secondary growth
, are not affected by this, but they can still be harmed by competition for light, water and nutrients. Following Hurricane Andrew
in 1992, F. aurea trees regenerated from root suckers
and standing trees.
, The Bahamas, the Caicos Islands, Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, San Andrés (a Colombian possession in the western Caribbean), southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama. It grows from sea level up to 1,800 m (5,500 ft) above sea level, in habitats ranging from Bahamian dry forests
, to cloud forest
in Costa Rica.
Ficus aurea is found in central and southern Florida as far north as Volusia County
; it is one of only two native fig species in Florida. The species is present in a range of south Florida ecosystems, including coastal hardwood hammocks
, cabbage palm
hammocks,
tropical hardwood hammocks and shrublands, temperate hardwood hammocks and shrublands and along watercourses. In The Bahamas, F. aurea is found in tropical dry forests
on North Andros
, Great Exuma and Bimini
. F. aurea occurs in 10 states in Mexico, primarily in the south, but extending as far north as Jalisco
. It is found in tropical deciduous forest, tropical semi-evergreen forest, tropical evergreen forest, cloud forest and in aquatic or subaquatic habitats.
Ficus aurea is a strangler fig—it tends to establish on a host tree which it gradually encircles and "strangles", eventually taking the place of that tree in the forest canopy. While this makes F. aurea an agent in the mortality of other trees, there is little to indicate that its choice of hosts is species specific. However, in dry forests
on Great Exuma in The Bahamas, F. aurea establishes exclusively on palms
, in spite of the presence of several other large trees that should provide suitable hosts. Eric Swagel and colleagues attributed this to the fact that humus accumulates on the leaf bases of these palms and provides a relatively moist microclimate
in a dry environment, facilitating seedling survival.
Figs are sometimes considered to be potential keystone species
in communities of fruit-eating animals
because of their asynchronous
fruiting patterns. Nathaniel Wheelwright reports that Emerald Toucanet
s fed on unripe F. aurea fruit at times of fruit scarcity in Monteverde
, Costa Rica
. Wheelwright listed the species as a year-round food source for the Resplendent Quetzal
at the same site. In the Florida Keys
, F. aurea is one of five fruit species that dominate the diet fed by White-crowned Pigeon
s to their nestlings. F. aurea is also important in the diet of mammalian frugivores—both fruit and young leaves are consumed by black howler monkeys
in Belize.
The interaction between figs and fig wasp
s is especially well-known (see section on reproduction, above). In addition to its pollinators (Pegoscapus mexicanus), F. aurea is exploited by a group of non-pollinating chalcidoid wasps
whose larvae develop in its figs. These include gall
ers, inquiline
s and kleptoparasites as well as parasitoid
s of both the pollinating and non-pollinating wasps.
As a large tree, F. aurea can be an important host for epiphyte
s. In Costa Rican cloud forests, where F. aurea is "the most conspicuous component" of intact forest, trees in forest patches supported richer communities of epiphytic bryophyte
s, while isolated trees supported greater lichen
cover.
Florida International University
ecologist Suzanne Koptur reported the presence of extrafloral nectaries on F. aurea figs in the Florida Everglades
. Extrafloral nectaries are structures which produce nectar but are not associated with flowers. They are usually interpreted as defensive structure and are often produced in response to attack by insect herbivore
s. They attract insects, primarily ant
s, which defend the nectaries, thus protecting the plant against herbivores.
in The Bahamas and Florida. Allison Adonizio and colleagues screened F. aurea for anti-quorum sensing
activity (as a possible means of anti-bacterial action), but found no such activity.
Individual F. aurea trees are common on dairy farms in La Cruz, Cañitas and Santa Elena in Costa Rica, since they are often spared when forest is converted to pasture
. In interviews, farmers identified the species as useful for fence posts, live fencing and firewood, and as a food species for wild birds and mammals.
Ficus aurea is used as an ornamental tree
, an indoor tree
and as a bonsai
. Like other figs, it tends to invade built structures and foundations, and need to be removed to prevent structural damage. Although young trees are described as "rather ornamental", older trees are considered to be difficult to maintain (because of the adventitious roots that develop off branches) and are not recommended for small areas. However, it was considered a useful tree for "enviroscaping" to conserve energy in south Florida, since it is "not as aggressive as many exotic fig species," although it must be given enough space.
Moraceae
Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 40 genera and over 1000 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates...
that is native to the U.S. state of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, the northern and western Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, southern Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
south to Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. The specific epithet aurea was applied by English botanist Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall was an English botanist and zoologist, who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841....
who described the species in 1846. Older names applied to this species were later ruled invalid.
Ficus aurea is a strangler fig
Strangler Fig
Strangler fig is the common name for a number of tropical and subtropical plant species, including some banyans and unrelated vines, including among many other species:* Ficus aurea, also known as the Florida Strangler Fig...
. In fig
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
s of this type, seed germination usually takes place in the canopy of a host
Host (biology)
In biology, a host is an organism that harbors a parasite, or a mutual or commensal symbiont, typically providing nourishment and shelter. In botany, a host plant is one that supplies food resources and substrate for certain insects or other fauna...
tree with the seedling living as an epiphyte
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...
until its roots establish contact with the ground, after which it enlarges and strangles its host, eventually becoming a freestanding tree in its own right. Individuals may reach 30 m (98.4 ft) in height. Like all figs, it has an obligate mutualism with fig wasp
Fig wasp
Fig wasps are wasps of the family Agaonidae which pollinate figs or are otherwise associated with figs, a coevolutional relationship that has been developing for at least 80 million years...
s: figs are only pollinated by fig wasps, and fig wasps can only reproduce in fig flowers. The tree provides habitat, food and shelter for a host of tropical lifeforms including epiphytes in cloud forests and bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s, mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s, reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
s and invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s. F. aurea is used in traditional medicine
Traditional medicine
Traditional medicine comprises unscientific knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine...
, for live fencing, as an ornamental
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
and as a bonsai
Bonsai
is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ...
.
Description
Plant sexuality
Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes morphological aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
: each tree bears functional male and female flowers. Fig
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
s are generally evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
, but F. aurea is briefly leafless in winter at the northern end of its range in Florida. The size and shape of the leaves is variable. Some plants have leaves that are usually less than 10 cm (4 in) long while others have leaves that are larger. The shape of the leaves
Leaf shape
In botany, leaf shape is characterised with the following terms :* Acicular : Slender and pointed, needle-like* Acuminate : Tapering to a long point...
and of the leaf base also varies—some plants have leaves that are oblong or elliptic with a wedge-shaped to rounded base, while others have heart-shaped or ovate leaves with cordate to rounded bases. F. aurea has paired figs which are green when unripe, turning yellow as they ripen. They differ in size (0.6–0.8 cm [0.2–0.3 in], about 1 cm [0.4 in], or 1.0–1.2 cm [0.4–0.5 in] in diameter); figs are generally sessile
Sessility (botany)
In botany, sessility is a characteristic of plants whose flowers or leaves are borne directly from the stem or peduncle, and thus lack a petiole or pedicel...
, but in parts of northern Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
figs are borne on short stalks known as peduncles
Peduncle (botany)
In botany, a peduncle is a stem supporting an inflorescence, or after fecundation, an infructescence.The peduncle is a stem, usually green and without leaves, though sometimes colored or supporting small leaves...
.
Taxonomy
With about 750 species, FicusFicus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
(Moraceae
Moraceae
Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 40 genera and over 1000 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates...
) is one of the largest angiosperm genera (David Frodin of Chelsea Physic Garden
Chelsea Physic Garden
The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries’ Garden in London, England in 1673. It is the second oldest botanical garden in Britain, after the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, which was founded in 1621.Its rock garden is the oldest English garden devoted to alpine plants...
ranked it as the 31st largest genus). Ficus aurea is classified in the subgenus
Subgenus
In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea tigris Linnaeus, which...
Urostigma (the strangler figs) and the section
Section (botany)
In botany, a section is a taxonomic rank below the genus, but above the species. The subgenus, if present, is higher than the section, and the rank of series, if present, is below the section. Sections are typically used to help organise very large genera, which may have hundreds of species...
Americana. Recent molecular phylogenies
Phylogenetics
In biology, phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relatedness among groups of organisms , which is discovered through molecular sequencing data and morphological data matrices...
have shown that subgenus Urostigma is polyphyletic, but have strongly supported the validity of section Americana as a discrete group
Clade
A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...
(although its exact relationship to section Galoglychia is unclear).
Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall was an English botanist and zoologist, who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841....
described the species in the second volume of the his 1846 work The North American Sylva with specific epithet aurea ('golden' in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
). In 1768, Scottish botanist Philip Miller
Philip Miller
Philip Miller FRS was a Scottish botanist.Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 until he was pressured to retire shortly before his death...
described Ficus maxima
Ficus maxima
Ficus maxima is a fig tree which is native to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America south to Paraguay. Figs belong to the Moraceae family...
, citing Carl Linnaeus' Hortus Cliffortianus
Hortus Cliffortianus
The Hortus Cliffortianus is a work of early botanical literature published in 1738.The work was a collaboration between Carl Linnaeus and Georg Dionysius Ehret, financed by George Clifford in 1735-1736. Clifford, a wealthy Amsterdam banker was a keen botanist with a large herbarium and governor of...
(1738) and Hans Sloane
Hans Sloane
Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS was an Ulster-Scot physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the foundation of the British Museum...
's Catalogus plantarum quæ in insula Jamaica (1696). Sloane's illustration of the species, published in 1725, depicted it with figs borne singly, a characteristic of the Ficus subgenus Pharmacosycea
Pharmacosycea
Pharmacosycea is one of six subgenera currently recognised in the genus Ficus. It was proposed by E. J. H. Corner in 1967 to unite section Pharmacosycea with Oreosycea.Recent molecular phylogenies has shown that the subgenus is polyphyletic...
. As a member of the subgenus Urostigma, F. aurea has paired figs. However, a closer examination of Sloane's description led Cornelis Berg to conclude that the illustration depicted a member of the subgenus Urostigma (since it had other diagnostic of that subgenus), almost certainly F. aurea, and that the illustration of singly borne figs was probably artistic license
Artistic license
Artistic licence is a colloquial term, sometimes euphemism, used to denote the distortion of fact, alteration of the conventions of grammar or language, or rewording of pre-existing text made by an artist to improve a piece of...
. Berg located the plant collection upon which Sloane's illustration was based and concluded that Miller's F. maxima was, in fact, F. aurea. In his description of F. aurea, which was based on plant material collected in Florida, Thomas Nuttall considered the possibility that his plants belonged to the species that Sloane had described, but came to the conclusion that it was a new species. Under the rules of botanical nomenclature
Botanical nomenclature
Botanical nomenclature is the formal, scientific naming of plants. It is related to, but distinct from taxonomy. Plant taxonomy is concerned with grouping and classifying plants; botanical nomenclature then provides names for the results of this process. The starting point for modern botanical...
, the name F. maxima has priority over F. aurea since Miller's description was published in 1768, while Nuttall's description was published in 1846.
In their 1914 Flora of Jamaica, William Fawcett
William Fawcett (botanist)
William Fawcett was a British botanist and coauthor of the Flora of Jamaica.Fawcett was Director of Public Gardens and Plantations in Jamaica from 1887 to 1908...
and Alfred Barton Rendle
Alfred Barton Rendle
Alfred Barton Rendle FRS was an English botanist.Rendle was born in Lewisham and studied at St John's College, Cambridge...
linked Sloane's illustration to the tree species that was then known as Ficus suffocans, a name that had been assigned to it in August Grisebach
August Grisebach
August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach was a German botanist and phytogeographer. Born in Hannover on April 17, 1814, he died at Göttingen on May 9, 1879.- Biography :...
's Flora of the British West Indian Islands. Gordon DeWolf agreed with their conclusion and used the name F. maxima for that species in the 1960 Flora of Panama. Since this use has become widespread, Berg proposed that the name Ficus maxima be conserved
Conserved name
A conserved name or nomen conservandum is a scientific name that has specific nomenclatural protection. Nomen conservandum is a Latin term, meaning a "name which should be conserved"...
in the way DeWolf had used it, a proposal that was accepted by the nomenclatural committee.
Reassigning the name Ficus maxima did not leave F. aurea as the oldest name for this species, as German naturalist Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link
Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link
Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link was a German naturalist and botanist.Link was born at Hildesheim as a son of the minister August Heinrich Link , who taught him the love for nature through collection of 'natural objects'...
had described Ficus ciliolosa in 1822. Berg concluded that the species Link described was actually F. aurea, and since Link's description predated Nuttall's by 24 years, priority should have been given to the name F. ciliolosa. Since the former name was widely used and the name F. ciliolosa had not been, Berg proposed that the name F. aurea be conserved. In response to this, the nomenclatural committee ruled that rather than conserving F. aurea, that it would be better to reject F. ciliolosa. Conserving F. aurea would mean that precedence would be given to that name over all others. By simply rejecting F. ciliolosa, the committee left open the possibility that the name F. aurea could be supplanted by another older name, if one were to be discovered.
Synonyms
In 1920, American botanist Paul C. StandleyPaul Carpenter Standley
Paul Carpenter Standley was an American botanist.Standley was born in Avalon, Missouri...
described three new species based on collections from Panama and Costa Rica—Ficus tuerckheimii, F. isophlebia and F. jimenezii. DeWolf concluded that they were all the same species, and Berg synonymised them with F. aurea. These names have been used widely for Mexican and Central American populations, and continue to be used by some authors. Berg suspected that Ficus rzedowskiana Carvajal and Cuevas-Figueroa may also belong to this species, but he had not examined the original material upon which this species was based.
Berg considered F. aurea to be a species with at least four morphs
Polymorphism (biology)
Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species — in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph...
. "None of the morphs", he wrote, "can be related to certain habitats or altitudes." Thirty years earlier, William Burger had come to a very different conclusion with respect to Ficus tuerckheimii, F. isophlebia and F. jimenezii—he rejected DeWolf's synonymisation of these three species as based on incomplete evidence. Burger noted that the three taxa occupied different habitats which could be separated in terms of rainfall and elevation.
Reproduction and growth
Figs have an obligate mutualism with fig waspFig wasp
Fig wasps are wasps of the family Agaonidae which pollinate figs or are otherwise associated with figs, a coevolutional relationship that has been developing for at least 80 million years...
s, (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. Ficus aurea is pollinated by Pegoscapus mexicanus
Pegoscapus mexicanus
Pegoscapus mexicanus is a species of fig wasp which is native to Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. It has an obligate mutualism with Ficus aurea, the fig species it pollinates....
(Ashmead
William Harris Ashmead
William Harris Ashmead was an American entomologist born on 19 September 1855 at Philadelphia. He died 17 October 1908 at Washington D.C.After his studies in Philadelphia, Ashmead worked for the publisher J. B. Lippincott Co. Later, he settled in Florida where he formed his own publishing house...
).
Figs have complicated inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
s called syconia
Syconium
A syconium is the type of fruit borne by figs , formed of an enlarged, fleshy, hollow receptacle with multiple ovaries on the inside surface. In essence, it is really a fleshy stem with a number of flowers, so it is considered both a multiple and accessory fruit. The name comes from the Greek word...
. Flowers are entirely contained within an enclosed structure. Their only connection with the outside is through a small pore called ostiole
Ostiole
An ostiole is a small hole or opening through which algae or ascomycetal fungi release their mature spores. The term is also used in higher plants, for example to denote the opening of the involuted fig inflorescence through which fig wasps enter to pollinate and breed....
. Monoecious figs like F. aurea have both male and female flowers within the syconium. Female flowers mature first. Once mature, they produce a volatile
Volatility (chemistry)
In chemistry and physics, volatility is the tendency of a substance to vaporize. Volatility is directly related to a substance's vapor pressure. At a given temperature, a substance with higher vapor pressure vaporizes more readily than a substance with a lower vapor pressure.The term is primarily...
chemical attractant. Female wasps squeeze their way through the ostiole into the interior of the syconium. Inside the syconium, they pollinate the flowers, lay their eggs in some of them, and die. The eggs hatch and the larvae parasitise the flowers in which they were laid. After four to seven weeks (in F. aurea), adult wasps emerge. Males emerge first, mate with the females, and cut exit holes through the walls of the fig. The male flowers mature around the same time as the female wasps emerge. The newly emerged female wasps actively pack their bodies with pollen from the male flowers before leaving through the exit holes the males have cut and fly off to find a syconium in which to lay their eggs. Over the next one to five days, figs ripen. The ripe figs are eaten by a variety of mammals and birds which disperse
Seed dispersal
Seed dispersal is the movement or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, including both abiotic and biotic vectors. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant...
the seeds.
Phenology
Figs flower and fruit asynchronously. Flowering and fruiting is staggered throughout the population. This fact is important for fig wasps—female wasps need to find a syconium in which to lay their eggs within a few days of emergence, something that would not be possible if all the trees in a population flowered and fruited at the same time. This also makes figs important food resources for frugivoreFrugivore
A frugivore is a fruit eater. It can be any type of herbivore or omnivore where fruit is a preferred food type. Because approximately 20% of all mammalian herbivores also eat fruit, frugivory is considered to be common among mammals. Since frugivores eat a lot of fruit they are highly dependent...
s (animals that feed nearly exclusively on fruit); figs are one of the few fruit available at times of the year when fruit are scarce.
Although figs flower asynchronously as a population, in most species flowering is synchronised within an individual. Newly emerged female wasps must move away from their natal tree in order to find figs in which to lay their eggs. This is to the advantage of the fig, since it prevents self-pollination
Self-pollination
Self-pollination is a form of pollination that can occur when a flower has both stamen and a carpel in which the cultivar or species is self fertile and the stamens and the sticky stigma of the carpel contact each other in order to accomplish pollination...
. In Florida, individual F. aurea trees flower and fruit asynchronously. Within-tree asynchrony in flowering is likely to raise the probability of self-pollination, but it may be an adaptation that allows the species to maintain an adequate population of wasps at low population densities or in strongly seasonal climates.
| Flowering phenology in Ficus aurea | ||
| Phase | Description | Duration in F. aurea |
|---|---|---|
| A (pre-female) | Immature flowers | 2 days to >9 months |
| B (female) | Female flowers are receptive to pollination; female wasps lay eggs and pollinate flowers | 1 day to 3 weeks |
| C (interfloral) | Fig seeds and wasp larvae develop | 4 to 7 weeks |
| D (male) | Male flowers mature; wasps emerge, mate and female wasps disperse | 1 to 2 days |
| E (post-floral) | Fruits ripen | 1 to 5 days |
Flowering phenology
Phenology
Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate...
in Ficus has been characterised into five phases. In most figs, phase A is followed almost immediately by phase B. However, in F. aurea immature inflorescences can remain dormant for more than nine months.
Growth
Ficus aurea is a fast-growing tree. As a hemiepiphyteHemiepiphyte
A hemiepiphyte is a plant which begins its life as an epiphyte but which later grows roots down into the ground. The seeds of hemiepiphytes germinate in the canopy and initially live epiphytically...
it germinates
Germination
Germination is the process in which a plant or fungus emerges from a seed or spore, respectively, and begins growth. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. However the growth of a sporeling from a spore, for example the...
in the canopy
Canopy (forest)
In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant community or crop, formed by plant crowns.For forests, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms .Sometimes the term canopy is used to refer to the extent...
of a host tree and begin life as an epiphyte
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...
before growing roots down to the ground. F. aurea is also a strangler fig
Strangler Fig
Strangler fig is the common name for a number of tropical and subtropical plant species, including some banyans and unrelated vines, including among many other species:* Ficus aurea, also known as the Florida Strangler Fig...
(not all hemiepiphytic figs are stranglers)—the roots fuse
Anastomosis
An anastomosis is the reconnection of two streams that previously branched out, such as blood vessels or leaf veins. The term is used in medicine, biology, mycology and geology....
and encircle the host tree. This usually results in the death of the host tree, since it effectively girdles
Girdling
Girdling, also called ring barking or ring-barking, is the complete removal of a strip of bark from around the entire circumference of either a branch or trunk of a woody plant. Girdling results in the death of wood tissues beyond the damage...
the tree. Palms
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
, which lack secondary growth
Secondary growth
In many vascular plants, secondary growth is the result of the activity of the two lateral meristems, the cork cambium and vascular cambium. Arising from lateral meristems, secondary growth increases the girth of the plant root or stem, rather than its length. As long as the lateral meristems...
, are not affected by this, but they can still be harmed by competition for light, water and nutrients. Following Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...
in 1992, F. aurea trees regenerated from root suckers
Basal shoot
A basal shoot, root sprout, adventitious shoot, water sprout or sucker is a shoot or cane which grows from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from its roots. This shoot then becomes, or takes the form of, a singular plant. A plant that produces suckers is referred to as surculose...
and standing trees.
Distribution
Ficus aurea ranges from Florida, across the northern Caribbean to Mexico, and south across Central America. It is present in central and southern Florida and the Florida KeysFlorida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...
, The Bahamas, the Caicos Islands, Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, San Andrés (a Colombian possession in the western Caribbean), southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama. It grows from sea level up to 1,800 m (5,500 ft) above sea level, in habitats ranging from Bahamian dry forests
Bahamian dry forests
The Bahamian dry forests are a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, covering an area of . They are found on much of the northern Bahamas, including Andros, Abaco, and Grand Bahama, where they are known as coppices...
, to cloud forest
Cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and...
in Costa Rica.
Ficus aurea is found in central and southern Florida as far north as Volusia County
Volusia County, Florida
Volusia County is a county located in the state of Florida. The U.S. Census Bureau 2010 official county's population was 494,593 . Its county seat is DeLand, and its most populous city is currently Deltona....
; it is one of only two native fig species in Florida. The species is present in a range of south Florida ecosystems, including coastal hardwood hammocks
Hammock (ecology)
Hammocks are dense stands of hardwood trees that grow on natural rises of only a few inches higher than surrounding marshland that is otherwise too wet to support them. Hammocks are distinctive in that they are formed gradually over thousands of years rising in a wet area through the deposits of...
, cabbage palm
Sabal palmetto
Sabal palmetto, also known as cabbage palm, palmetto, cabbage palmetto, palmetto palm, blue palmetto, Carolina palmetto, common palmetto, swamp cabbage and sabal palm, is one of 15 species of palmetto palm . It is native to the southeastern United States, Cuba, and the Bahamas...
hammocks,
tropical hardwood hammocks and shrublands, temperate hardwood hammocks and shrublands and along watercourses. In The Bahamas, F. aurea is found in tropical dry forests
Bahamian dry forests
The Bahamian dry forests are a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, covering an area of . They are found on much of the northern Bahamas, including Andros, Abaco, and Grand Bahama, where they are known as coppices...
on North Andros
North Andros
North Andros is one of the 31 Districts of The Bahamas. It is also the largest district in the country. It has some of the largest settlements on Andros Island and many churches as well.- Churches :...
, Great Exuma and Bimini
Bimini
Bimini is the westernmost district of the Bahamas composed of a chain of islands located about 53 miles due east of Miami, Florida. Bimini is the closest point in the Bahamas to the mainland United States and approximately 137 miles west-northwest of Nassau...
. F. aurea occurs in 10 states in Mexico, primarily in the south, but extending as far north as Jalisco
Jalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
. It is found in tropical deciduous forest, tropical semi-evergreen forest, tropical evergreen forest, cloud forest and in aquatic or subaquatic habitats.
Ecology
Bahamian dry forests
The Bahamian dry forests are a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, covering an area of . They are found on much of the northern Bahamas, including Andros, Abaco, and Grand Bahama, where they are known as coppices...
on Great Exuma in The Bahamas, F. aurea establishes exclusively on palms
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
, in spite of the presence of several other large trees that should provide suitable hosts. Eric Swagel and colleagues attributed this to the fact that humus accumulates on the leaf bases of these palms and provides a relatively moist microclimate
Microclimate
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
in a dry environment, facilitating seedling survival.
Figs are sometimes considered to be potential keystone species
Keystone species
A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance. Such species play a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and...
in communities of fruit-eating animals
Frugivore
A frugivore is a fruit eater. It can be any type of herbivore or omnivore where fruit is a preferred food type. Because approximately 20% of all mammalian herbivores also eat fruit, frugivory is considered to be common among mammals. Since frugivores eat a lot of fruit they are highly dependent...
because of their asynchronous
Asynchrony
Asynchrony, in the general meaning, is the state of not being synchronized.* Asynchronous learning* Collaborative editing systemsIn specific terms of digital logic and physical layer of communication, an asynchronous process does not require a clock signal, in contrast with synchronous and...
fruiting patterns. Nathaniel Wheelwright reports that Emerald Toucanet
Emerald Toucanet
The Emerald Toucanet, Aulacorhynchus prasinus, is a near-passerine bird occurring in mountainous regions from Mexico, through Central America, to northern Venezuela and along the Andes as far south as central Bolivia...
s fed on unripe F. aurea fruit at times of fruit scarcity in Monteverde
Monteverde
Monteverde, Costa Rica is a small town in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Located in the Cordillera de Tilarán, roughly a four hour drive from the Central Valley of Costa Rica, Monteverde is considered a major ecotourism destination in Costa Rica...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
. Wheelwright listed the species as a year-round food source for the Resplendent Quetzal
Resplendent Quetzal
The Resplendent Quetzal, Pharomachrus mocinno, is a bird in the trogon family. It is found from southern Mexico to western Panama . It is well known for its colorful plumage. There are two subspecies, P. m. mocinno and P. m...
at the same site. In the Florida Keys
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...
, F. aurea is one of five fruit species that dominate the diet fed by White-crowned Pigeon
White-crowned Pigeon
The White-crowned Pigeon is a species of bird in the family Columbidae . It inhabits the northern and central Caribbean islands and some places on the North and Central American mainland...
s to their nestlings. F. aurea is also important in the diet of mammalian frugivores—both fruit and young leaves are consumed by black howler monkeys
Guatemalan Black Howler
The Guatemalan black howler, or Yucatan black howler, is a species of howler monkey, a type of New World monkey, from Central America. It is found in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico, in and near the Yucatan Peninsula. It lives in evergreen, semi-deciduous and lowland rain forests...
in Belize.
The interaction between figs and fig wasp
Fig wasp
Fig wasps are wasps of the family Agaonidae which pollinate figs or are otherwise associated with figs, a coevolutional relationship that has been developing for at least 80 million years...
s is especially well-known (see section on reproduction, above). In addition to its pollinators (Pegoscapus mexicanus), F. aurea is exploited by a group of non-pollinating chalcidoid wasps
Chalcid wasp
Chalcid wasps belong to the insect order Hymenoptera, and are one of the largest groups within the order, with some 22,000 known species, and an estimated total diversity of anywhere from 60,000 to more than 500,000 species, meaning the vast majority have yet to be discovered and described.Most of...
whose larvae develop in its figs. These include gall
Gall
Galls or cecidia are outgrowths on the surface of lifeforms caused by invasion by other lifeforms, such as parasites or bacterial infection. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues and can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insects and mites...
ers, inquiline
Inquiline
In zoology, an inquiline is an animal that lives commensally in the nest, burrow, or dwelling place of an animal of another species. For example, some organisms such as insects may live in the homes of gophers and feed on debris, fungi, roots, etc...
s and kleptoparasites as well as parasitoid
Parasitoid
A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is in essence parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilises or kills, and sometimes consumes, the host...
s of both the pollinating and non-pollinating wasps.
As a large tree, F. aurea can be an important host for epiphyte
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...
s. In Costa Rican cloud forests, where F. aurea is "the most conspicuous component" of intact forest, trees in forest patches supported richer communities of epiphytic bryophyte
Bryophyte
Bryophyte is a traditional name used to refer to all embryophytes that do not have true vascular tissue and are therefore called 'non-vascular plants'. Some bryophytes do have specialized tissues for the transport of water; however since these do not contain lignin, they are not considered to be...
s, while isolated trees supported greater lichen
Lichen
Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...
cover.
Florida International University
Florida International University
Florida International University is an American public research university in metropolitan Miami, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus in University Park...
ecologist Suzanne Koptur reported the presence of extrafloral nectaries on F. aurea figs in the Florida Everglades
Everglades
The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...
. Extrafloral nectaries are structures which produce nectar but are not associated with flowers. They are usually interpreted as defensive structure and are often produced in response to attack by insect herbivore
Herbivore
Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...
s. They attract insects, primarily ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s, which defend the nectaries, thus protecting the plant against herbivores.
Uses
The fruit of Ficus aurea is edible and was used for food by the indigenous people and early settlers in Florida; it is still eaten occasionally as a backyard source of native fruit. The latex was used to make a chewing gum, and aerial roots may have been used to make lashings, arrows, bowstrings and fishing lines. The fruit was used to make a rose-coloured dye. F. aurea was also used in traditional medicineTraditional medicine
Traditional medicine comprises unscientific knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine...
in The Bahamas and Florida. Allison Adonizio and colleagues screened F. aurea for anti-quorum sensing
Quorum sensing
Quorum sensing is a system of stimulus and response correlated to population density. Many species of bacteria use quorum sensing to coordinate gene expression according to the density of their local population. In similar fashion, some social insects use quorum sensing to determine where to nest...
activity (as a possible means of anti-bacterial action), but found no such activity.
Individual F. aurea trees are common on dairy farms in La Cruz, Cañitas and Santa Elena in Costa Rica, since they are often spared when forest is converted to pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
. In interviews, farmers identified the species as useful for fence posts, live fencing and firewood, and as a food species for wild birds and mammals.
Ficus aurea is used as an ornamental tree
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
, an indoor tree
Houseplant
A houseplant is a plant that is grown indoors in places such as residences and offices. Houseplants are commonly grown for decorative purposes, positive psychological effects, or health reasons such as indoor air purification...
and as a bonsai
Bonsai
is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ...
. Like other figs, it tends to invade built structures and foundations, and need to be removed to prevent structural damage. Although young trees are described as "rather ornamental", older trees are considered to be difficult to maintain (because of the adventitious roots that develop off branches) and are not recommended for small areas. However, it was considered a useful tree for "enviroscaping" to conserve energy in south Florida, since it is "not as aggressive as many exotic fig species," although it must be given enough space.