ABOVE: Male fig and leaves from the Crocker Range in Sabah. with thanks to Linus Gokusing
MAGNIFICENT FIG Ficus grandiflora Corner (1965) Borneo Endemic root climber
Latin: Large flowers – from the size of the male flowers inside the male fig.
Plant: A rare root climber up tree trunks in hill forest with large figs and large very variable leaves.
Leaf: Very variable. As with some other Section Kalosyce root climbers such as Ficus puctata and Ficus ruginerva there are extreme differences in size and shape between bathyphyll (juvenile) and acrophyll (adult) leaves. Leaves may be up to 17 cm long x 9 cm wide. With Ficus punctata and F. ruginerva the juvenile (bathyphyll leaves) are much smaller than the acrophyll (adult) leaves. However with F. grandiflora the reverse is true.
Sex: Dioecious. Separate male and female plants which produce male and female figs respectively.
Fig: The large ellipsoid figs 6-10 cm long may have stipes or peduncles up to 2 cm long. Figs ripen green to red to purple.
Similar species: Only three other root climbers in Borneo have leaves longer than 10 cm, (1) F. carri , (2) F. cavernicola (3) F. densechini.
Distinguish: From other root climbing figs with large leaves and large figs by the shape and appearance of the fig fruit..
Distribution: Endemic to Borneo. All records are from virgin hill forest in Western Borneo from Kinabalu south to Kuching. There are no records yet from Kalimantan. Until recently there were only 4 herbarium collections, 3 from Dallas a Kampung on the western slopes of Kinabalu and one from Ulu Temburong Brunei. Recent discoveries are from the wet western slopes of the Crocker Range, and from Long Pasia in Sabah and from Bau near Kuching in Sarawak. All discoveries have been in virgin hill forest at or below 1,000 m asl.
