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Conservation Status
IUCN: not evaluated
USFWS: None
Family: MORACEAE Genus: Ficus Species: dammaropsis Species Author: Diels Vernacular: Kapiak - Tok Pisin, highland breadfruit - English [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_dammaropsis]
Ficus dammaropsis is an unusual fig with very large leaves that can grow 3 feet long and 2 feet wide. Like all the species of this genus, Diner Plate Fig produces a multiple fruit call a syconium. Inside the syconium there are fleshy cavities that contain unisexual male and female flowers. The male flower produce pollen and the female flowers produce seeds. The female flowers of this species are pollinated only by the wasp Ceratosolen abnormis.
(Corner, E.J.H. 1978. Ficus dammaropsis and the multibracteate species of Ficus.)
(Wagner, W.L., D.R. Herbst, and S.H. Sohmer. 1999. Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i.)
Ficus dammaropsisthe is a native of the rain forests of New Guinea.
(Corner, E.J.H. 1978. Ficus dammaropsis and the multibracteate species of Ficus.)
The fruit and young leaves of which are eaten in the Papua New Guinea highlands. Indigenous people of New Guinea use the large leaves for wrapping pork meat and for lining the cooking ovens. The bark is used in making string and head coverings.
(Currey, Bruce. 1980. Famine in the Pacific. Losing the chances for change. GeoJournal 4(5):447-466.)
Ficus dammaropsis pollination is another example of the vital symbiotic relationship established between insects and plants. The miniscule wasp Ceratosolen abnormis enters the syconium through an opening at the upper end of the fruit. The wasp enters to lay her eggs and in doing so she also pollinates the female flowers. Neither fig nor the wasp can reproduce without this cooperation. Without the wasp there can be no seeds for the fig and without the specialized fruit of the fig tree there is no perpetuation of the species for the wasp.
(Ramirez, B.W. 1970. Host Specificity of Fig Wasps (Agaonidae). Evol. 24: 680-691.)
(Corner, E.J.H. 1978. Ficus dammaropsis and the multibracteate species of Ficus.)
(Information for this species compiled and recorded by Camelia Cirnaru, NTBG Consultant.)
We currently have 1 herbarium specimens for Ficus dammaropsis in our collection. Click on any specimen below to view the herbarium sheet data.
