ELEGANT FIG Ficus concinna Miq. (1867) SECTION UROSTIGMA Latin: From concinnus, neat, shapely, elegant.
Plant: A common strangler in the Philippines and on the Asian continent. See map below. There is a single Borneo record from Bod Gaya in the Semporna Islands in East Sabah. This collection was made by Pastor Orolfo on 15 March 1934 and is stored in the Kew Herbarium.
Taxonomic Note: F. concinna is closely related to F. virens. In general F. concinna leaves and fruits are half the size of F. virens. The leaf side veins are relatively obscure in F. concinna but obvious in F. virens. In many parts of the world range the two species overlap in distribution but in Borneo they appear to replace each other geographically. It would not be surprising however to find F. concinna on some of Sabah’s east coast islands. In addition the possibility of hybridization should also be considered.
Leaf: Medium size leaf, 4-13 long x 1-5 cm wide with a petiole (leaf stalk) usually 1-2.5 cm long but occasionally up to 3.5 cm long
Fig: Tiny figs 0.4-0.6 cm with a short peduncle (stalk) up to 0.5 cm long. As illustrated there below there are 3 prominent basal bracts at the base of the fig. According to Berg (2011) these bracts are usually cauducous i.e they drop off early on and are usually missing in herbarium collections. However in some herbarium collections the bracts are persistent. The figs ripen white to pink to purple to black and are usually spotted.
Similar species: Ficus virens which in Borneo is a common fig of both forest and coastal districts. In general both the the leaves and the figs of F. virens are roughly twice the size of Ficus concinna but the variation in both means that they do often overlap.
Distinguish: (1) In Ficus virens the basal bracts of the fig fruit are usually persistent and remain on the fig in herbarium collections instead of falling off as with F. concinna.
(2) On average the petiole (leaf stalk) of F. virens is longer than than that of F. concinna. F. virens petioles are usually 2.5- 6 cm long whereas F. concinna petioles are usually less than 2.5 cm long.
(3) The leaves of both species have 7-12 side veins but with F. concinna these side veins are faint or obscure whereas with F. virens they are clear and obvious.
(4) The peduncle (fig stalk) on F. virens is usually absent (sessile) or very short up to 0.1 cm long whereas with F. concinna the peduncle is usually obvious and up to 0.5 cm long.
Distribution: Only one record from Sabah, Bod Gaya in the Semporna Islands.
Range: NE India to S. China south to the Malay Peninsula, Philippines (Type collection) and Sulawesi. No records from Singapore.
