Ficus neriifolia Sm.
| Kannada Name : | - |
| Common Name : | Willow-leaf fig |
| Family Name : | Moraceae |
| Scientific Name : | Ficus neriifolia |
| Species Type : | Indigenous |
| Phenology : | Evergreen |
| Conservation Status : | Not known |
| Flowering Period : | None |
| Fruiting Period : | None |
| Origin : | Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Nepal |
Uses
The latex from the plant is applied to boils on the tongue. The juice of the stem bark is used as a folk remedy for conjunctivitis and boils. It is also pruned and grown as a bonsai.
Description
Deciduous trees, to 15 m tall. Bark dark gray, smooth. Branchlets green to pale green, leaf traces and stipular scars conspicuous. Leaves simple, elliptic, ovate, ovate-elliptic, both surfaces glabrous and green, abaxially densely covered with cystoliths, adaxially smooth, base cuneate to rounded, apex acuminate to caudate, margin entire. Inflorescence a syconium. Figs axillary on leafy or older leafless branches, paired, narrowly cylindric, ovoid, carpodermis thick or thin and with or without stone cells, inside without bristles, apical pore navel-like, sessile. Male flowers: many, pedicellate; calyx lobes 3 or 4, ovate-lanceolate; stamens 2 or 3. Gall flowers: few; ovary ovoid, short. Female and gall flowers: calyx lobes 3 or 4; female flowers: ovary globose; style thin. Achenes smooth.
