ABOVE: Giant Ficus megaleia leaves on a roadside plant next to a logging road at Selapon, Temburong, Brunei. All photos by Arlene Walshe. Hand supplied by Judie Leslie.
The Ficus megaleia plant at Selapon, Temburong, Brunei. Judie Leslie shows the scale.Ficus megaleia is dioecious i.e. separate male and female trees. This almost ripe fig shows the presence of numerous unripe seeds and the absence of male flowers (stamens) around the ostiole at the top indicating that both the fig fruit and also the plant must be female.Ficus megaleia female fig fruit. Earth figs grow on long root like stolons usually buried in the leaf litter around the base of the trunk.Ficus megaleia female fig fruit. This is the ostiole, the hole at the base of each fig. The tiny flowers of each fig fruit grow on the inside of the fig fruit and are pollinated by tiny fig wasps, which crawl trough the ostiole. The ostiole is lined with inward pointing bracts to restrict access to any insects other than fig wasps.Ficus megaleia female fig fruit
