FICUS MIDOTIS Corner (1960) SECTION: SYCIDIUM
Greek: Wine jug – referring to the similarity of the fig to a traditional red terracotta Grecian wine jug.
Habit: Small shrub or terrestrial climber to 5 m common in wet rocky virgin forest throughout Borneo relatively common in wet hill forest. The leaves are very variable
Large leaves 10-25 cm but up to 34 cm long by 4-8 cm wide with a smooth surface but a wavy and slightly dentate (toothed) leaf edge. The leaves are in flat sprays (distichous) and more or less asymmetrical (unbalanced in shape) often with a distinctive “auricle” on one side of the leaf base with 8-13 pairs of steeply ascending side veins. The petiole is short to 1 cm long but not absent. Both the midrib and the side veins on the upperside of the leaf are flat or sunken giving the leaf a corrugated or bullate appearance similar to F. subulata and F. rubromidotis.
Sex: Dioecious.
Tiny figs (0.6-1 cm) grow in dense clusters on the trunk or branches. The figs hang from short peduncles up to 1 cm long. Figs ripen bright scarlet red and are covered in in sparse short hairs and prominent white dots (ant food glands)
Ecology: Typically an epiphyte which prefers wet forest along rivers or in the hills. May grow over rocks.
Confusion species
(1) Ficus subulata has similar sized large bullate leaves and small orange figs but many differences.
(2) F. rubromidotis is a very similar fig which is confined to Brunei, Sarawak and West Kalimantan. For differences see Ficus rubromidotis: Introduction
Range: Endemic to Borneo. Common in wet hill forest throughout. Overlaps with Ficus subulata throughout and with F. rubromidotis in the hills of Sarawak and Brunei and West and Central Kalimantan.
