The medium sized tree with a straight white trunk is a male Ficus variegata fig tree growing just outside the Police Station HQ in Kota Kinabalu at the base of Signal Hill. Several times a year this male tree fruits prolifically. When the figs are ripe, thousands of tiny fig wasps emerge through the ostiole and the green male figs fall uneaten to the ground as is normal with male figs .
Fig ripening can easily be recognized by the hundreds of swiftlets that circle over the tree catching the emerging fig wasps. These swiftlets are domesticated white nest swiftlets that occupy an illegal ” swiftlet house” in the center of KK opposite the police HQ. Truly Sabah is a wonderful place with so many interesting things to see !
