Ficus septica growing along the access road to the Nexus Resort at Karambunai, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The indentation at the base of the fig is the “ostiole” an entrance gate giving access to the tiny flowers found inside all fig fruits. Ficus septica is dioecious (separate male and female trees) each producing either male or female figs. After pollination by tiny fig wasps which enter through the ostiole, male figs only produce fig wasps and female figs only produce seeds.
- Ficus septica figs ripen green and are not eaten by birds, only by small fruit bats (and civets) which detect ripe figs by smell. Note how the white veins on the leaf all “point” towards the figs to guide the bat in the dark towards the ripe figs.
This is a female fig which has already been entered by female fig wasps which forced their way in through the ostiole (the hole at the base of the fig). The ostiole bracts are overlapping and pointing inwards so they are an effective one-way gate. The female fig wasps pollinate the tiny female flowers inside the fig which later produce seeds. The female fig wasp can get in but not out and dies within the fig. The female fig wasp dies on a suicide mission in order that the fig can produce seeds.
