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Ficus fulva: Male & female figs compared, Kapit, Sarawak

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ABOVE: Female Ficus fulva  (Collection EG #2020885)  collected  at Sungai Sebatu, near Rumah Nading Nadang Sentang, Kapit, Sarawak. For an example of a male Ficus fulva  collected in the same locality on the same date see below. 

For an example of an unusual Ficus fulva fig collected in the same area click here.

All photos by Elliot Gardner  taken on 14 February 2020.  Part of a project entitled Ethnobotany and ethnotaxonomy of Moraceae in Sarawak supported by the National Parks Board of Singapore.

Male Ficus fulva  (Collection EG #2020886). Note that ripe male figs are almost twice the size of ripe female figs  and  colored pale yellow rather than orange

Male ripe Ficus fulva with the ostiole bracts lower at left. Note the male anthers (twin white bars)  surrounding the ostiole and the empty ovaries with exit holes which acted as brood chambers for pollinating fig wasps.  The pregnant wasps have now left the fig  carrying pollen from the anthers either to fertilize a nearby unripe  female figs or to lay their eggs in the ovaries of  unripe male figs.
Google Maps link to Kapit Map

 

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