Section Eriosycea figs are a very common component of secondary forest and gaps in primary forest in Borneo.
Typically Section Eriosycea figs grow as small trees with rough hairy leaves and hairy figs. The world distribution extends from New Guinea to NE India and China.
Borneo is the world center of distribution with a total of 20 species of which 13 are endemic to Borneo. All species are dioecious with separate male and female trees.
All species have similar very distinctly shaped seeds as described in this article.
Illustration of a Ficus fulva seed (copied from Berg (2005) which shows the typical shape and structure which very roughly forms a 4 sided pyramid (tetrahedron). The very unusual shape of these small seeds make Section Eriosycea figs easy to ID if you find a ripe female fig fruit. Note that you will need a 10 x botanical magnifying glass to see the structure clearly.
A tetradedron is a four sided pyramid.
One of Borneo's smallest fig seeds (Ficus fulva) compared with one of Borneo's largest fig seeds belonging to Ficus deltoidea.
Ficus lumutana seeds from Danum Valley Field Center. The shape of these seeds are typical of all Section Eriosycea figs. Photo by Dr Zainal Zaharu Zainuddin
Ficus androchaete and Ficus eumorpha are both members of Section Eriosycea hence the similarity in the seeds
