ABOVE: Ficus lawesii growing as a stand alone strangler next to the road that leads to the Maliau Basin Study Centre in central Sabah. Notice the SUV parked on the opposite side of the road for scale.
This fig has a prominent position at the top of the hill with a view overlooking the junction of of the Maliau Studies Centre Road with the road that leads from the main gate to Agathis Camp.Ficus lawesii can be identified from the very distinctive fallen leaves. The leaves are flat and rigid. Whilst the basal veins are weak and uneven (in this resembling Ficus kerkhovenii) the side veins are straight and prominent. The petiole (leaf stalk) is long and rigid.
The lower half of the photo shows the strangling roots covering a tree trunk which has long collapsed. In the middle of the trunk at the original site where the fig established is an epiphytic Poikilospermum shrub. Above the Poikilospermum the fig has developed aa strong branched trunk and a very wide open canopy, rather like a typical tree not a fig.
Whilst figs normally have pale bark these branches are almost white. and the branches are open and widespread.
View from the hill top on which the Ficus lawesii is growing. In the far distance you can see the T junction where the Studies Center road (front) reaches the main road between the Main gate (on the left) and the road to Agathis Camp (on the right).The tip of the blue arrow indicates the location of the Ficus lawesii strangler at Maliau.
