Kampung Sayap is a very picturesque, Dusun village on the western slopes of Kinabalu about 3 hours drive from Kota Kinabalu. The friendly, prosperous villagers are expert fruit farmers and their orchards were loaded with fruit when we visited in January 2018 to look for wild fig trees.
This dying tree growing next to the road in a rubber garden at Kg Sayap hosted a root climbing fig with leaves similar to Ficus densechini but small cherry sized figs. Normally Ficus densechini figs are the size of large oranges. However when I cut open the fig fruit the flowers inside were mature indicating that the fig fruits on the tree were full sized not immature. The most likely candidate is Ficus apiocarpawhich is a liana fig normally found in poor quality kerangas or peat swamp coastal areas.Although the leaves look similar to the leaves of Ficus densechini the petioles (leaf stalks) are relatively short whereas Ficus densechini petioles are usually very long often exceeding 10 cm.
The most likely species is Ficus apiocarpa with unripe green figs.From Kampong Sayap it is only 20 minutes drive to Sayap sub-station in the Kinabalu Park. If you are interested in plants, this area of Borneo with many narrow valleys and fast flowing streams is a paradise for botanists. Although there is no visitor accommodation at the Sayap sub-station there are many excellent homestays in Kampong Sayap itself.
