Ficus benjamina L.
| Kannada Name : | Java atthi |
| Common Name : | Weeping fig |
| Family Name : | Moraceae |
| Scientific Name : | Ficus benjamina |
| Species Type : | Exotic |
| Phenology : | Evergreen |
| Conservation Status : | Not known |
| Flowering Period : | None |
| Fruiting Period : | None |
| Origin : | Asia, Australia |
Uses
The pounded leaves and bark are applied as a poultice in the treatment of rheumatic headaches. The wood is of low quality, but is used for temporary constructions, mouldings, interior work, cladding, drawers, small domestic articles, fruit crates etc.
Description
Evergreen trees, to 30 m tall. Bark gray to gray-white, smooth. Main branches producing aerial roots which can develop into new trunks; branchlets gray-white, pendulous, glabrous. Leaves simple, blade ovate to broadly elliptic, glabrous, coriaceous, base rounded to cuneate, margin entire, apex shortly acuminate. Inflorescence a syconium. Figs axillary on leafy branchlets, paired or solitary. Male, gall, and female flowers within same fig. Male flowers: few, shortly pedicellate; stamen 1. Gall flowers: many. Female flowers: sessile. Fruit an achene, ovoid-reniform, shorter than persistent style. Figs purple, red, or yellow [or red with white dots] when mature, globose to depressed globose or sometimes pear-shaped, glabrous or pubescent, base attenuate into stalk, sessile.
