Volume 10 > Part 4 > Year 2011 > Page 645 > Moraceae > Ficus

URO40. Ficus sundaica Blumewfo-0000690518

Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind.: 450. 1825; Corner, Gard. Bull. Singapore 17: 389. 1960; Kochummen, Tree Fl. Malaya 3: 158. 1978; Kochummen, Tree Fl. Sabah & Sarawak 3: 225. 2000; C.C.Berg & Corner, Fl. Males., Ser. 1, Spermat. 17(2): 684. 2005.— Urostigma sundaicum (Blume) Miq., Fl. Ned. Ind. 1(2): 339. 1859. Plate LXXV: 4.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Tree to 15(–)35 m tall, hemi-epiphytic, (secondarily?) terrestrial (or climber?). Branches drying brown. Leafy twigs (2–)3–4(–5) mm thick, ± angular, glabrous (or minutely white puberulous); periderm persistent. Leaves spirally arranged; lamina elliptic, oblong or (sub) ovate, 6–20(–26) by 2–7(–10) cm, (thickly) coriaceous, apex acuminate, the acumen usually acute, base cuneate to rounded, margin flat to slightly revolute (towards the base); both surfaces glabrous; midrib slightly prominent to flush ± impressed above, lateral veins (4–)5–8(–10) pairs, the basal pair distinct, to ⅕–⅓ the length of the lamina, unbranched or weakly branched, departing the midrib 2–5 mm above the base of the lamina, 0–1(–2) pairs of smaller lateral veins below the main pair, tertiary venation largely parallel to the lateral veins, slightly prominent to flush and then ± obscure; waxy gland at the base of the midrib; petiole 1–3.5(–4.5) cm long, 2–3 mm thick, glabrous, drying blackish; stipules 1–2.5(–3) cm long, glabrous (or sparsely minutely white puberulous), caducous, often with a distinct median part or keeled. Figs axillary, paired (or solitary), sessile; basal bracts 3, 4–8 mm long, (sub)equal, (broadly) ovate with an obtuse to subacute apex, often with a distinct median part or ± keeled, not or only basally imbricate, covering ⅙–¼ of the receptacle, glabrous, persistent; receptacle ellipsoid, ovoid, obovoid or subglobose, 0.8–1.2(–1.5) cm diam. when dry, glabrous, yellow to red at maturity, apex convex to mammillate or almost flat, ostiole 3–5 mm diam., prominent to flat, closed, the 3 upper ostiolar bracts fully imbricate, only 2 visible or the third barely; wall shrivelled when dry; internal hairs absent. Tepals reddish. Ovary partly red.

Thailand : EASTERN: Ubon Ratchathani; SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi; CENTRAL: Nakhon Nayok; SOUTH-EASTERN: Rayong, Trat; PENINSULAR: Surat Thani, Phangnga, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla, Yala, Narathiwat.

Distribution : Burma (?), Vietnam, Cambodia, Peninsular and Bornean Malaysia, Singapore (?), Brunei, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java – type, Kalimantan, Lesser Sunda Islands?), the Philippines.

Ecology : Dry evergreen and evergreen forests, also in bamboo thickets, to 1,100 m alt.

Notes: This species shares ellipsoid fig receptacles with Ficus pellucidopunctata and F. subgelderi, both of which are hairy on the stipules and have ostioles which are more or less open. In F. sundaica, the stipules are glabrous, and the ostioles closed; the leafy twigs are sometimes minutely puberulous.

The species is rather variable in the dimensions of the lamina and the length of the petiole.