Ficus barba-jovis a root climber growing up a tree trunk at Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Sabah.The leaves have a distinctive lobe on one side of the base which is characteristic of Ficus barba-jovis, although this is not very easy to see in the photo above.
Note that the fig is covered in short hairs. Close up the hairs can be seen to grow in two layers another characteristic of F. barba-jovis.Muhammed our guide at Tabin holding a Ficus barba-jovis fig- one of the largest fig fruits in the world. Ficus barba-jovis figs can grow up to 10 cm in diameter- the size of a large orange.
Ficus barba-jovis fig plants are dioecious which means that each fig plant is either male or female. From the dominance of male anthers (the white objects in two halves which look like coffee beans) in the photo above this is a male fig from a male plant. With dioecious figs male figs only produce fig wasps from the gall flowers which in the photo above can be seen in the layer below the anthers. Female barba-jovis figs do not have any anthers and only produce seeds.
