Ficus ampelas

Burm.f.

Ilu, Hiluo

MoraceaeFruitLeaves

iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) rain999777, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) 簡維德, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Leaves, Fruit

The leaves are eaten fresh, and ripe fruit are consumed fresh.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. It grows in the lowlands. In China it grows in broad-leaved evergreen forests at low elevations.

Asia, China, East Timor, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pacific, Papua New Guinea, PNG, Philippines, SE Asia, Taiwan, Timor-Leste,

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Brunei, Bhutan, China, Fiji, Micronesia, Georgia, Indonesia, Israel, India, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Kiribati, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Mongolia, Maldives, Malaysia, Nepal, Nauru, New Zealand, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pakistan, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, Singapore, Syria, Thailand, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Vanuatu, Samoa, Yemen

How to Identify

A fig. It is a small evergreen tree. It grows 3-15 m high. The twigs are pale brown and finely rough. They are thin and sometimes hang down. They are hairy. The leafy structure at the base of the leaf is sword shaped and pale brown with a few hairs. The leaf stalk is 3-8 mm long and coarse. The leaves are somewhat rough. They are oblong and taper towards the end. The base of the leaf can be wedge shaped. Sometimes the edges have teeth. The leaves are 5-13 cm long by 2-6 cm wide. The figs are almost without stalks. They are yellowish-red. They occur in pairs in the axils of leaves. They are 0.5-0.8 cm across and slightly rough.

How to Grow

Plants can be grown from seeds.

Other Information

In some areas of Papua New Guinea it is a very common fig.

Notes

There are about 800-1000 Ficus species. They are mostly in the tropics. There are 120 Ficus species in tropical America.

Names & Synonyms

Fei lu bin rong, Pohon ara ampelas

Ficus ampelas ElmerFicus irisana ElmerFicus kingiana Hemsleyand others

References (8)

Borrell, O.W., 1989, An Annotated Checklist of the Flora of Kairiru Island, New Guinea. Marcellin College, Victoria Australia. p 104
Flora of China.
Fl. indica 226. 1768 (As ampelos)
Luo, B., et al, 2019, Wild edible plants collected by Hani from terraced rice paddy agroecosystem in Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 15:56 (As Ficus irisana)
Peekel, P.G., 1984, (Translation E.E.Henty), Flora of the Bismarck Archipelago for Naturalists, Division of Botany, Lae, PNG. p 148, 146
Reis, S. V. and Lipp, F. L., 1982, New Plant Sources for Drugs and Foods from the New York Botanical Garden herbarium. Harvard. p 43 (As Ficus fastigiata)
Sukarya, D. G., (Ed.) 2013, 3,500 Plant Species of the Botanic Gardens of Indonesia. LIPI p 280
World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew