ABOVE: Ficus heteropleura – note the net like tertiary veins.
BELOW: Ficus parietalis –note the ladder like tertiary veins
Ficus heteropleura and Ficus parietalis are 2 very similar Section Sycidium figs often found in similar roadside or jungle edge habitats either growing as small shrubs or epiphytes.
These two figs are often confused but very easily distinguished from each other by the differences in the prominent veins on the underside of the leaf.
Ficus heteropleura tertiary veins are reticulate (net like).
Ficus parietalis tertiary veins are scalariform (ladder like).
Both paintings above are from Plantillustrations.org
Both black & white drawings below are by Corner (1976) Climbing Species of Ficus Derivation and Evolution
