Ficus aurita

Content

Description

Shrub or tree up to 9 m tall, sometimes (?) lianescent and/or hemi-epiphytic. Branchlets drying (pale) brown to yellowish, often with (axillary) tufts of small subulate and ciliolate stipules. internal hairs absent. Leaves distichous; stipules semi-amplexicaul, 0.3-0.8 or (0.5-)1-2.3 cm long, brownish puberulous to strigillose, striate, subpersistent or caducous.

Distribution

Ambon present, Aru Islands present, Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; Maluku (Maluku present); Philippines (Philippines present); Sulawesi (Sulawesi present), Buru present, Halmahera present, Leyte present, Mindanao present, Moratai present, Nusa Laut present, Samar present, Western present

Borneo, Philippines (Samar, Leyte, Mindanao), Celebes, Moluccas (Moratai, Halmahera, Buru, Ambon, Nusa Laut, Aru Islands), New Guinea (western).

Morphology

3In some of the collections from Celebes the basal lateral veins extend to 1/2 of the length of the lamina, whereas usually up to 1/6 the length. 1The laminas often have cystoliths on both sides. 2The characteristic extension of the decurrent side of the base of the lamina is usually present in relatively large leaves, as common in the material from New Guinea and the Moluccas but it is less common elsewhere. The lobe is rarely present in small-leaved material, sometimes it is reduced to a subulate structure. The decurrent base is often just a strip of mesophyll along the petiole or a small auricle. The size of the leaves is to some extend linked to the length of the stipules, but material with short (and caducous) stipules and relatively large leaves, with or without a clear lobe, can be found in Borneo and the Philippines. On the basis of these differences two far from clear-cut forms can be distinguished:

a. Stipules (0.5-)1-2.3 cm long, subpersistent. Lamina mostly relatively large and the decurrent base of the lamina often extended by an up to 1.5 cm long lobe; lateral veins mostly 10-13(-15) pairs. Fig peduncle 0.2-0.5 mm long; receptacle 0.6-0.8 cm diam. when dry (var. aurita). — Moluccas (incl. Aru Islands) and New Guinea.
b. Stipules 0.3-0.8(-1) cm long, mostly caducous. Lamina mostly relatively small and the decurrent side of the lamina base without (a distinct) lobe; lateral veins often 6-9 pairs. Fig peduncle 0.1-0.2(-4) cm long; receptacle 0.3-0.6 cm diam. when dry (var. auriculifera). — Philippines, Borneo, Celebes. — The material from Celebes is clearly brown-hairy, whereas the indumentum is sparse and inconspicuous in material from the Philippines and Borneo.

Citation

King 1887: p. 12. – In: Sp. Ficus: t. 10

Corner 1965: – Gard. Bull. Singapore 21: 77

King 1887: p. 8. – In: Sp. Ficus: t. 5

Blume 1867 – In: Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat.: 274, 292

Miq. 1859 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 313

Merr. 1923 – In: Enum. Philipp. Flow. Pl.: 54