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Ficus macrostyla, Kalabakan, Sabah

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The unusual looking fig fruit of F. macrostyla, a rare, rheophytic (stream adapted) fig, from Kalabakan in Sabah. All photos by Linus Gokusing.

Ficus macrostyla grows as a small epilithic shrub on the large sandstone rocks in the middle of this stream in Kalabakan district, Sabah.
Some of the rocks in the stream are covered in individual F.macrostyla shrubs with a short single stem and a tuft of leaves. The roots encircle the rock to hold the plant tight during flash floods.
As with all figs the terminal bud is a pointed stipule.

The white dots on the fig are believed to be glands which provide food to attract ants during periods when pollinating fig wasps are entering or leaving the fig via the ostiole (hole)  at the top of the fig.
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