Ficus androchaete collected by Linus Gokusing at 500m on the wet western slopes of the Crocker Range. There are no records of this fig from Kinabalu and this is the first record from the northern end of the Crocker Range. Further south in wet forest at Ulu Temburong and Mulu F. androchaete is a common small tree of the forest edge. All photos by Linus Gokusing.
The Greek scientific name for this fig means “long hairs” from the long sharp hairs inside the fig as you can see from the photo above. Hence the common name “Hippy Fig”.According to Berg’s (2005) monograph, Ficus androchaete can be distinguished from the very similar Ficus subfulva by the fact that the hairs of the stipules are brown in F. subfulva but yellowish in F. androchaete. However yellow hairs on the stipule are not obvious in this photograph !
