GLOBE FIG Ficus globosa Blume (1825) SECTION CONOSYCEAE
Latin: Globular (round)- referring to the round fig.
Liana strangler sometimes a small tree to 10m reported from lowland and hill forest including peat swamp, primary and secondary forest throughout Borneo.
Sex: Monoecious.
Leaf: Medium size leaf almost always smaller and more rounded than Ficus annulata with a lesser number of side veins. Ficus globosa normally has less than 10 side veins whilst F. annulata normally has more than 10 side veins.
Fig: The medium size round figs (1.5cm) grow singly in the leaf axils and along the branches and hang from peduncles up to 1 cm long. Figs ripen green to greenish yellow often with pale longitudinal stripes and or spots. The mature fig may be covered with very short brown hairs. The fig may be slightly stipitate with the bracts at the junction of the peduncle and the stipe.
Similar species: Frequently confused with F.depressa and F. annulata the only other stranglers with large bat dispersed figs which ripen green /yellow.
Distinguish: from F. annulata and F. depressa figs by the short peduncle (stalk) of the fig and the round shape of the fig. F. annualta and F. depressa have ovoid (egg shaped) figs. F.depressa has a long peduncle and F. annulata has a very short peduncle or no peduncle. Neither have stipitate figs.
Distribution: A common climber/strangler with a widespread distribution throughout Borneo, especially common in coastal forest. Recorded from Gaya Island (Kota Kinabalu) and Pulau Punyit a small island just offshore the Empire Resort in Brunei Darussalam.
Range: Myanmar south to Malaya, Sumatra, Borneo, and Java.
