FIGS & SEXUALITY: Of the c. 150 Bornean fig species 47 species are monoecious (both the tree and each fig fruit on that tree is bisexual) and 103 species are dioecious (unisexual) i.e. each plant is either male or female and produces only male or female figs.

SEX CHANGE: From DNA studies it is thought that all figs were originally dioecious and monoecious figs were a later development in fig evolution. A counter argument is that (morphologically) all dioecious figs  retain the ability to become monoecious and in fact this reversal has happened at least once in Ficus evolution with Ficus racemosa.  Ficus racemosa  is closely related to other dioecious figs but is monoecious.  Another possibility is that some dioecious fig trees may retain the ability to temporarily produce figs of the opposite sex but this hypothesis has yet to be systematically investigated. 

WORLDWIDE the proportion of monoecious to dioecious fig species is around 50:50. With figs dioecy is best developed and most common in the wet evergreen rainforests of Borneo. However this is generally true of all rainforest plants. Dioecy in plants is most common in the windless understorey of tropical rainforest worldwide.

THE DISADVANTAGES OF DIOECY: In Borneo dioecious figs are usually locally common  shrubs and lianas of the sub-canopy whilst monoecious  figs are  relatively scarce tall trees or stranglers which produce fig fruits (and fig wasps) at canopy level. Research has shown that these canopy level fig wasps are dispersed long distances by wind currents. However  dioecious fig wasps are rarely found in canopy level insect traps and are assumed to fly from one fig tree to another in the forest understorey, where wind is almost non-existent.

EXTERNAL CLUES to the sexuality of dioecious figs are most obvious with Sections Sycidium and Eriosycea (all members of which are dioecious). Male figs are nearly always larger and paler than female figs. The fact that some dioecious male and female fig fruits could be distinguished by sight was first pointed out by Corner (1939)  in relation to Ficus punctata herbarium collections.  Recognition of sex differences of fig fruits in the field was first pointed out by Hill (1967) working in Hong Kong.

Lambert (1992) Fig Dimorphism in Bird-Dispersed Gynodioecious Ficus  was the first to describe external morphological sexual differences in Malesian figs.

“A comparison of the figs from three male Ficus species F. heteropleura, F. obscura and F. parietalis at Kuala Lompat, West Malaysia showed that there were distinctive, consistent differences in colour, texture and morphology between figs on male and female plants. Male figs are always paler in coloration than female figs and do not exhibit the colour changes associated with ripening. The male figs of F. parietalis are pale orange at all stages whilst female trees produced orange seed figs which ripen dark red.” Adapted from Lambert (1992).

Ficus parietalis IMG_5964 - Copy.JPG

Ficus parietalis male figs at Mulu. Note that the ostiole is open indicating that male wasps have bored a hole through the bracts surrounding the ostiole allowing the pregnant female wasps to escape and carry male pollen to a nearby  receptive female fig.

Ficxus parietalis IMG_5943 - Copy.JPG
Male Ficus parietalis figs at Mulu. Once the female wasps have left, the male  fig fruits fall to the ground and rot, their purpose in life having been achieved.
Ficus parietalis IMG_6040 - Copy.JPG
The male figs on the left show the open ostiole. The fig sections on the right show that the bracts which normally only allow one way entrance (inwards)  into the ostiole have been removed by the male wasps allowing the winged female wasps to escape the fig. Male wasps have only one purpose in life. Once they have mated with the female wasps and bored an exit hole, they crowd onto the surface of the fig to act as decoys for predatory ants allowing the pregnant female wasps to escape unharmed.
ficus-parietalis-img_6057-copy
This photo shows a male Ficus parietalis fig soon after the wasps start hatching. However the winged female wasps (black dumbells in the photo) cannot normally exit the exit at this stage because the the ostiole is blocked by the inward pointing bracts. The males have to cut a passage through the ostiole before the wasps can leave.
Ficus parietalis IMG_6048 - Copy.JPG
Male Ficus parietalis fig in which the male wasps have now cut a passageway through the ostiole allowing both the male and female wasps to exit. From outside the empty male fig is obvious because the ostiole is now a black hole.
Ficus parietalis IMG_6056.JPG
This male fig never produced any wasps probably because the wall of the fig was damaged by fig parasites.

For an example of  a fruiting female Ficus parietalis see this link