Ficus tricolor

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Ficus tricolor

Description

Tree up to 20 m tall. internal hairs sparse to abundant, white. Leaves spirally arranged; stipules 0.5-1.5 cm long, pale brown subsericeous.

Taxonomy

Ficus grossularioides and F. tricolor appear to be very closely related. A combination of more or less clear differences, like in the texture and margin of the lamina, the indumentum on the leafy twigs, petioles, and both surfaces of the lamina, as well as in the size of the syconia, make it possible to place specimens in one of these two species. However, there are two problem entities, var. stenoloba and var. robusta. The former is left as an infraspecific taxon in F. grossularioides, although with some doubt. The latter was described as a variety of F. grossularioides. Corner transferred material initially identified as F. grossularioides var. robusta to F. tricolor, but he did not publish a new combination. The two species appear to be ecologically different as well: F. grossularioides is apparently a lowland species, whereas most records indicate that F. tricolor occurs at altitudes between 800 and 1900 m; this also applies to var. robusta and var. stenoloba. Considering the nature of the differences, one could unite the two species and recognize a number of infraspecific taxa at the subgenus and the variety level. The variation in leaf indumentum in F. tricolor is parallel to that in F. grossularioides.

Citation

Miq. 1867: – Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat. 3: 290
Koord. 1918 – In: Atlas Baumart. Java: t. 778
Kuntze 1891 – In: Rev. Gen. Pl.: 627
King 1888: p. 142. – In: Sp. Ficus: t. 179
Corner 1965: – Gard. Bull. Singapore 21: 44
Miq. 1859 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 295
Koord. & Valeton 1906 – In: Bijdr. Boomsoort. Java: 261