Ficus pseudowassa
Content
Description
Tree up to 15 m tall.
Branchlets often drying red-brown.
internal hairs abundant.
Leaves distichous;
stipules semi-amplexicaul, 0.4-0.7 cm long, sparsely minutely appressed-puberulous, caducous.
Fruits ± tuberculate.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: New Guinea present, East Sepik Province present, Morobe Province present, New Britain present, Solomon Islands present
New Guinea (eastern: Morobe Province, East Sepik Province, New Britain); common in the Solomon Islands.
Morphology
1This species shows affinities to F. leptodictya, F. stellaris, and F. schumanniana. It differs from F. leptodictya in the branched basal lateral veins at the broad side of the lamina and the presence of (faint) additional waxy glandular spots in the axils of other lateral veins than the basal ones. Such glandular spots are neither found in F. stellaris, in which the figs are axillary or occur just below the leaves, whereas commonly far below the leaves on short-shoots in F. pseudowassa. In the lowland form of F. stellaris, the fig receptacles are distinctly smaller and the peduncles distinctly shorter than in F. pseudowassa.
2The glandular spots are occasionally fused in the middle of the base of the midrib, as normally in F. schumanniana, in which the basal lateral veins are unbranched or faintly branched, unlike F. pseudowassa.