Plants in Israel: Ficus microcarpa

Ficus microcarpa, Ficus nitida, Ficus retusa, Chinese Banyan Tree, Malayan Banyan Tree, Indian Laurel, Curtain fig, Laurel rubber,

Hebrew: פיקוס השדרות, Arabic: فيكس عادي


Scientific name:		Ficus microcarpa L.f
Synonym name:		Ficus nitida Thunb., Ficus retusa L.
Common name:		Chinese or Malayan banyan tree, Indian Laurel or Curtain fig, Laurel rubber
Hebrew name:		פיקוס השדרות
Arabic name:		فيكس عادي
Family:		Moraceae, Mulberry Family, תותיים

_{Location: Herzliya Pituach, Hanasi street}


Life form:		Phanerophyte,tree
Leaves:		alternate, simple, leathery, deep glossy green, oval-elliptic to diamond-shaped, to 13 cm long, with short pointed, ridged tips.
Inflorescence:		Syconium, a hollow, spherical or flask-shaped inflorescence lined on the inside with numerous minute, apetalous, unisexual flowers
Flowers:		Flowers tiny, unisexual, numerous, hidden within the “fig,” a fleshy, specialized receptacle that develops into a multiple fruit (syconium), this green turning to yellow or dark red when ripe, sessile, in pairs at leaf axils, small, to 1 cm in diameter. What appear to be fruits are actually the flowers enclosed in pods
Flowering Period:		April, May, June, July
Habitat:		Humid
Distribution:		Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes
Chorotype:		Med – Irano-Turanian
Summer shedding:		Perennating

_{Location: Tel Aviv, Park HaYarkon (Ganei Yehoshua)}
Derivation of the botanical name:

Ficus, Latin for Ficus carica. The Latin words for fig – ficus, fica (and from them the English word “fig”), derive from the Hebrew word pag פג, meaning “unripe fig”. Today the word pag refers to a premature infant.

microcarpa, micro, “small”; -carpa, -fruit; meaning small-fruited.
nitida,shining, polished.
retusa, with a rounded shallowly notched end.
The hebrew word: תאנה, te’ena, te-i-na; the Akkadian name: tittu, tiʾittu; Arabic: تين‏‏‏‏, tayn. te-i-na is the Hebrew word for “fig tree.” In Hebrew literature the word “fig tree” is synonymous with “prosperity.” It was not in Babylonia nor in Assyria that man “dwelt under” and ate “every one of his fig tree,” but in Syria (see Mic. 4: 4; Is. 36: 16, etc.)

The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
The standard author abbreviation L.f. is used to indicate Carolus Linnaeus the Younger (1741 – 1783), a Swedish naturalist.
The standard author abbreviation Thunb. is used to indicate Carl Peter Thunberg (1743 – 1828), a Swedish naturalist.

The Ficus microcarpa is introduced into Israel from India by the British in the twenties of the previous century.
Ficus can only reproduce if they are pollinated by mutualistic wasps – Ficus microcarpa and its pollinator Parapristina verticillata.

_{Location: Herzliya Pituach, Hanasi street}