Tropical Plant Database - Plant Details

Variable in habit, often epiphytic, subscandent shrubs when young, in maturity spreading evergreen trees with large branches and numerous aerial roots hanging from the trunk and branches, these sometimes reaching the soil to form pillar-like roots. Leaves variable, coriaceous, oblong, elliptic to broadly elliptic or obovate, usually 5-8 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, glabrous, margins entire, petioles 0.6-2 cm long. Syconia sessile, arising among or just below the leaves, depressed-globbose, 6-10 mm in diameter, subtended by 3 broadly ovate, persistent bracts. Seeds minute, less than 1 mm in size.
(Wagner, W.L., D.R. Herbst, and S.H. Sohmer. 1999. Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i.)

Ficus microcarpa is native from Ceylon to India, southern China, Ryukyu Islands, Australia, and New Caledonia. In its native range, southern Asia, Ficus microcarpa thrives in moist regions, where it is common up to 6,000 ft (1,829 m).
(Wagner, W.L., D.R. Herbst, and S.H. Sohmer. 1999. Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i.)
(Neal, M.C. 1965. In Gardens of Hawai'i.)

The fruit (syconium or fig) and reproduction systems of species in the genus Ficus are unique. Each species of Ficus has an associated species of agaonid wasp (Hymenoptera: Chalcoidea: Agaonidae). Ficus species can only be pollinated by their associated agaonid wasps and in turn, the wasps can only lay eggs within their associated Ficus fruit. For successful pollination and reproduction of Ficus species to occur, its associated pollinator wasp must be present. Conversely, for successful reproduction of agaonid wasps to occur, their associated Ficus species must be present The pollinator wasp for Ficus microcarpa, Parapristina verticillata, was purposefully introduced to Hawai'i in 1938.
(Wagner, W.L., D.R. Herbst, and S.H. Sohmer. 1999. Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i.)
(Janzen, D.H. 1979. How to Be a Fig.)

(Information for this species compiled and recorded by Camelia Cirnaru, NTBG Consultant.)

Ficus microcarpa is a popular ornamental tree grown widely in many tropical regions of the world. The pollinator wasp has been introduced to a number of places where the tree is cultivated, including Hawai'i, allowing this species to spread beyond initial plantings. Ficus microcarpa is a notorious invader in Hawai'i, Florida, Bermuda, and from Central to South America. Tiny seeds within small sized fruit are ingested by many fruit eating animals, such as birds. Seeds are capable of germinating and growing almost anywhere they land, even in cracks in concrete or in the crotch of other trees. The small seedling begins to grow on its host, sending down aerial roots, and eventually strangling and replacing the host tree or structure. In Hawai'i, most of the main islands are infested with Ficus microcarpa. Typically, this species invades disturbed urban sites to degraded secondary forests in areas nearby initial plantings. It has recently been observed growing on native Wiliwili (Erythrina sandwicense) in lowland dry forests of Maui. On the main islands of Hawai'i, rapid containment once inside natural area boundaries may be the only feasible action, given the widespread distribution. On Midway Atoll, the wasp was introduced later than on the main islands and, as a result, Ficus microcarpa has only recently begun to spread there. With limited distribution, control here seems more feasible than on the main islands. To decrease the potential for this species to spread, it should not be introduced to new areas and could be removed in natural areas where it is limited in distribution.
Starr F., Starr,K. and Loope,L. 2003. United States Geological Survey--Biological Resources Division, Haleakala Field Station, Maui, Hawai'i.)

We currently have 20 herbarium specimens for Ficus microcarpa in our collection. Click on any specimen below to view the herbarium sheet data.

• 022499 - collected by F. R. Fosberg in 1965
• 022503 - collected by F. R. Fosberg in 1968
• 044750 - collected by W. M. Bush in 1974
• 044751 - collected by Tim Flynn in 1987
• 009367 - collected by Tim Flynn in 1991
• 017986 - collected by David H. Lorence in 1994
• 027578 - collected by David H. Lorence in 1998
• 024088 - collected by Tim Flynn in 1998
• 035961 - collected by Hank Oppenheimer in 2002
• 044367 - collected by K. R. Wood in 2005
• 045506 - collected by Hank Oppenheimer in 2006
• 054871 - collected by Clay Trauernicht in 2008
• 054742 - collected by Clay Trauernicht in 2008
• 057278 - collected by Clay Trauernicht in 2008
• 049529 - collected by David H. Lorence in 2008
• 058735 - collected by David H. Lorence in 2010
• 067518 - collected by Tim Flynn in 2014
• Unassigned - collected by Susan M. Deans in 2016
• 084622 - collected by Kelsey Brock in 2017
• 075961 - collected by Seana Walsh in 2017