Spiny Fig Ficus cucurbitina is a generally rare fig that is locally common at Tawau Hills Park.
The Spiny fig normally grows as a strangler with the fruiting branches high in the canopy. The individual in this photo has established low down on a dipterocarp tree near the Tawau Hills Park HQ building as shown on the map below. This fig has not fruited yet. Stranglers rarely fruit at under 10 years old.
Despite the fact that the fig fruits are covered with sharp hairs (see photos below) this fig tree attracts abundant wildlife when it is fruiting including gibbons, squirrels, hornbills and macaques during the day and musang (civets) at night.
Ficus cucurbitina is rare in most of Borneo but locally common at Tawau Hills with a least two fruiting trees within a short walk of Tawau Hills Park HQ.
This gibbon visited this fruiting Ficus cucurbitina every day for the last 10 days but now the fig crop is almost finished.
