Ficus populifolia — Edible Plant Database

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit, Gum, Resin

Ripe fruit are eaten, and the gum is chewed.

Where to Find It

A tropical plant. It grows in rock terrain in West Africa,

Africa, Arabia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, CAR, Congo, East Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Middle East, Niger, Nigeria, Sahel, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, West Africa, Yemen,

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Angola, Burkina Faso, Bahrain, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Comoros, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Syria, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How to Identify

A fig. It is a bush or tree. It can be 20 m tall. It can at first grow attached to other plants. The crown has drooping branches.

How to Grow

The pollinator wasp is Nigeriella scindura van Noort.

Other Information

The figs are not commonly used.

Notes

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

Names & Synonyms

Bijahi, Garmeisa, Mgagatya, Xamash

Ficus vasta

References (12)

Burkill, H. M., 1985, The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 4. Kew.
Dalziel, 1937,
East African Herbarium records, 1981,
Gallagher, D. E., 2010, Farming beyond the escarpment: Society, Environment, and Mobility in Precolonial Southeastern Burkina Faso. PhD University of Michigan.
Jardin, C., 1970, List of Foods Used In Africa, FAO Nutrition Information Document Series No 2.p 137
Johns, T., Mhoro, E. B. and Sanaya, P., 1996, Food Plants and Masticants of the Batemi of Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Economic Botany, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 115-121
Mutie, F. G., 2020, Conservation of Wild Food Plants and Their Potential for Combatting Food Insecurity in Kenya as Exemplified by the Drylands of Kitui County. Plants 2020, 9, 1017
Mutie, F. M., et al, 2023, Important Medicinal and Food Taxa (Orders and Families) in Kenya, Based on Three Quantitative Approaches. Plants 2023, 12, 1145
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 150
Vivien, J., & Faure, J.J., 1996, Fruitiers Sauvages d'Afrique. Especes du Cameroun. CTA p 217
World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
www.figweb.org