Ficus arfakensis
Content
Description
Tree up to 10 m tall.
internal hairs absent.
Leaves (sub)distichous, sometimes subopposite;
stipules 0.4-1.5 cm long, brown(ish) strigillose, caducous or subpersistent.
Distribution
Aru Islands present, Asia-Tropical: Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present, Solomon Islands present
Solomon Islands; in Malesia: Moluccas (Aru Islands), New Guinea.
Notes
1This species, F. scortechinii and F. ribes constitute a cluster of very closely related taxa, currently treated as species, but they could be regarded as subspecies. Ficus arfakensis slightly differs from F. scortechinii in commonly exfoliating epidermis of the petioles and the mostly caducous stipules, and the often longer fig-bearing branchlets. Ficus ribes is distinct by the presence of cystoliths in the epidermis of both the upper and the lower surface of the lamina, and not only on the lower surface as in the other two species. The fact that for these three entities three different pollinators have been recorded (Wiebes, The Indo-Australian Agaoninae (pollinators of figs), 1994) supports the (provisional) treatment of these three taxa at the specific level.
2 The species is clearly related to F. macrothyrsa Corner from the Solomon Islands, which is distinct, e.g., in the larger and broader lamina in which the lateral veins are often furcate far from the margin.
Citation
Diels 1935 – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst.: 215
Diels 1935 – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst.: 211
Diels 1935 – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst.: 211
Summerh. 1941 – In: J. Arnold Arbor. 22: 98
Diels 1935 – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst.: 188
Summerh. 1941 – In: J. Arnold Arbor. 22: 100
Diels 1935 – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst.: 188
Corner 1965: – Gard. Bull. Singapore 21: 94
Diels 1935 – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst.: 195
Corner 1965: – Gard. Bull. Singapore 21: 97