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Ficus megaleia: Edible female figs, Kipandi, Sabah

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The photo shows female fig fruits at all stages of ripeness growing on  the same cultivated  Ficus megaleia earth fig plant at Kipandi  Butterfly Farm in the Crocker Range.  At least with this individual plant  the figs ripen one by one over a period of time  (steady state) to attract “traplining”  resident dispersers  rather than in one big bang to attract nomadic dispersers.

The most likely dispersers are forest rats and mouse deer.

All photos by Linus Gokusing.

Ficus megaleia female fig fruits from the same plant. Blue ring= unpollinated female flowers.  Green Ring= Flowers with immature seeds developing.  Yellow ring= Almost ripe seeds.
Fully ripe female figs of F. megaleia. Note the hairs and bracts which make it difficult/impossible for to these  figs to be swallowed whole by ground birds such as pheasants and partridges which predate the tiny seeds.
However any small mammal with teeth would find it easy to  remove the  rough pericarp/skin  which splits easily along “fault lines” enabling access to a ball of  jelly containing hundreds of  ripe seeds.  The jelly balls are edible by humans.  Ficus megaleia is  dioecious with separate male and female plants. Male fig fruits look very different from the female fig fruits. See this link: Ficus megaleia: male fig fruit at Kipandi

 

Ficus megaleia female fig plant cultivated at Kipandi Butterfly Farm in the Crocker Range, Sabah.

 

 

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