Ficus elastica

Trees, evergreen, to 12 m, epiphytic when young. Roots aerial, abundant. Bark gray, smooth or slightly roughened. Branchlets greenish brown, glabrous. Leaves: stipules 3-10 cm; petiole 2.5-10 cm. Leaf blade oblong-elliptic to obovate, 9-30 × 5-12 cm, leathery, base rounded, margins entire, apex abruptly short-acuminate or apiculate; surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrous; basal veins 1(-2) pairs; lateral veins 10 or more, parallel; secondary veins inconspicuous. Syconia paired, sessile, greenish yellow, oblong-ovoid, ca. 2 × ca. 1.5 cm, glabrous; subtending bracts caducous, leaving annual scar, entirely enclosing young syconia, glabrous; ostiole closed by 3 apical bracts, umbonate.

Phenology: Flowering all year.
Habitat: Disturbed sites
Elevation: 0-10 m

Fla., West Indies (Lesser Antilles), Asia (native to India).

Discussion

Ficus elastica is commonly cultivated. It has not been collected recently in the area of the flora.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa