Ficus pleurocarpa

Taxobox
name = Ficus pleurocarpa


image_width =
image_caption = "Ficus pleurocarpa"
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
ordo = Urticales
familia = Moraceae
genus = "Ficus"
species = "F. pleurocarpa"
binomial = "Ficus pleurocarpa"
binomial_authority = F.Muell.
synonyms = "Ficus cylindrica" Warb.cite journal | quotes = no | last = Dixon | first = Dale J. | year = 2003 | title = A taxonomic revision of the Australian "Ficus" species in the section "Malvanthera" ("Ficus" subg. "Urostigma": Moraceae) | journal = Telopea | volume = 10 | issue = 1 | pages = 125–53 | url = http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/72713/Tel10Dix125.pdf ]

"Ficus pleurocarpa", commonly known as the banana fig, karpe fig or gabi fig,cite web|url= http://www.wettropics.gov.au/st/rainforest_explorer/Resources/Documents/factsheets/bushTuckerOfTheWetTropics.pdf|title= Bush Tucker of the Wet Tropics|accessdate= 2008-07-13|work= Rainforest Explorer|publisher= Wet Tropics Management Authority] is a fig that is endemic to the wet tropical rainforests of northeastern Queensland, Australia. It has characteristic ribbed orange and red cylindrical syconia. It begins life as a hemiepiphyte, later becoming a tree up to 25 m (82 ft) tall. "F. pleurocarpa" is one of the few figs known to be pollinated by more than one species of fig wasp.

Taxonomy

"Ficus pleurocarpa" was described by German-Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1874 in "Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae".APNI | name = "Ficus pleurocarpa" | id = 38396 Retrieved on 2008-07-13] Its specific epithet is derived from Ancient Greek "pleuro", ribbed, and "carpus", fruit, or flesh of the fruit, hence "ribbed fruit". This is derived from the 5–10 ribs that run along the length of the fruit.

With over 750 species, "Ficus" is one of the largest angiosperm genera.cite journal | quotes = no | last = Frodin | first = David G. | year = 2004 | month = | title = History and concepts of big plant genera | journal = Taxon | volume = 53 | issue = 3 | pages = 753–76 | url = http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iapt/tax/2004/00000053/00000003/art00012| doi = 10.2307/4135449 ] On the basis of morphology, English botanist E. J. H. Corner divided the genus into four subgenera which were later expanded to six.cite journal | quotes = no | last = Rønsted | first = N. | coauthors = Weiblen, G. D.; Clement, W. L.; Zerega, N. J. C.; Savolainen, V. | year = 2008 | month = | title = Reconstructing the phylogeny of figs (Ficus, Moraceae) to reveal the history of the fig pollination mutualism | journal = Symbiosis | volume = 45 | issue = 1–3 | pages = 45–56 | url = http://geo.cbs.umn.edu/RonstedEtAl2008a.pdf ] In this classification, "F. pleurocarpa" was placed in subseries "Hesperidiiformes", series "Malvanthereae", section "Malvanthera" of the subgenus "Urostigma".cite journal | quotes = no | last = Rønsted | first = Nina | coauthors = George D. Weiblen, V. Savolainen, James M. Cook | year = 2008 | title = Phylogeny, biogeography, and ecology of "Ficus" section "Malvanthera" (Moraceae) | journal = Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume = 48 | issue = 1 | pages = 12–22 | doi = 10.1016/j.ympev.2008.04.005 | url = http://geo.cbs.umn.edu/RonstedEtAl2008b.pdf ] In his reclassification of the Australian "Malvanthera", Dixon altered the delimitations of the series within the section, but left this species in series Hesperidiiformes.

In 2005, Cornelis Berg completed Corner's treatment of the Moraceae for the "Flora Malesiana"; the completion of that work had been delayed since 1972 as a result of disagreements between Corner and C. J. J. G. van Steenis, editor of the "Flora Malesiana". [cite journal | quotes = no | last = Weiblen | first = G. D. | coauthors = W. L. Clement | year = 2007 | title = Flora Malesiana. Series I. Volume 17 parts 1 & 2 | journal = Edinburgh Journal of Botany | volume = 64 | issue = 3 | pages = 431–37 | doi = :10.1017/S0960428607064311 | url = http://geo.cbs.umn.edu/Weiblen&Clement2007.pdf ] Berg combined sections "Stilpnophyllum" and "Malvanthera" into an expanded section "Stilpnophyllum". This left "F. pleurocarpa" in subsection "Malvanthera", section "Stilpnophyllum".

Based on DNA sequences from the nuclear ribosomal internal and external transcribed spacers, Nina Rønsted and colleagues rejected previous subdivisions of the "Malvanthera". Instead, they divided section "Malvanthera" into three subsections - "Malvantherae", "Platypodeae" and "Hesperidiiformes". In this system, "F. pleurocarpa"is in the new subsection "Malvantherae".

Description

"Ficus pleurocarpa" is a monoecious tree which grows up to 25 m (82 ft) tall. Its leaves are 150–257 mm long (6–10 in) long and 49–100 mm (2–4 in) wide. Its syconia are orange or red in colour, 39–61 mm (1.5–2.4 in) long and 19–27 mm (0.7–1 in) in diameter. It begins life as a hemiepiphyte.

Reproduction

Figs have an obligate mutualism with fig wasps, (Agaonidae); figs are only pollinated by fig wasps, and fig wasps can only reproduce in fig flowers. Generally, each fig species depends on a single species of wasp for pollination. The wasps are similarly dependent on their fig species in order to reproduce. "F. pleurocarpa" is pollinated by two species of fig wasp—"Pleistodontes regalis" and "P. deuterus".cite journal | quotes = no | last = Lopez-Vaamonde | first = Carlos | coauthors = Dale J. Dixon, James M. Cook, Jean-Yves Rasplus | year = 2002 | title = Revision of the Australian species of "Pleistodontes" (Hymenoptera: Agaonidae) fig-pollinating wasps and their host-plant associations | journal = Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society | volume = 136 | issue = 4 | pages = 637–83 | doi = 10.1046/j.1096-3642.2002.00040.x | url = http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118944298/abstract ] This is one of the few cases where more than one species of fig wasp has been raised from the same syconium. The assumption that fig species are usually pollinated by just one species of fig wasp has been challenged by the discovery of cryptic species complexes among what was previous thought to be single species of fig wasps.cite journal | quotes = no | last = Molbo | first = Drude | coauthors = Carlos A. Machado, Jan G. Sevenster, Laurent Keller, Edward Allen Herre | year = 2003 | title = Cryptic species of fig-pollinating wasps: Implications for the evolution of the fig–wasp mutualism, sex allocation, and precision of adaptation | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA | volume = 100 | issue = 10 | pages = 5867–72 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.0930903100 ]

Distribution

"Ficus pleurocarpa" is an Australian endemic. It is found in north-east Queensland, from Cape Tribulation south to the Atherton Tableland. It grows in lowland and upland wet tropical rainforests from sea level up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) above sea level.

Ecology

Figs are sometimes considered to be potential keystone species in communities of fruit-eating animals; their asynchronous fruiting patterns may cause them to be important fruit sources when other food sources are scarce.cite book|last=Terborgh|first=John|editor=Michael E. Soulé (ed.)|title=Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity|year=1986|publisher=Sinauer Associates|location=Sunderland, Massachusetts|language=|isbn=978-0878937950|pages=330–344|chapter=Keystone plant resources in the tropical forests] "Ficus pleurocarpa" was the most largest contributor of fruit biomass in the forest canopy during periods of fruit scarcity, and was ranked as the species that made the second most important contribution to the frugivore community, although the authors of the study were unwilling to call it a keystone species.cite book|last=Westcott|first=David A.|coauthors=Matt G. Bradford, Andrew J. Dennis, Geoff Lipsett-Moore|editor=J. Lawrence Dew and Jean Philippe Boubli (eds.)|title= Tropical Fruits and Frugivores: The Search for Strong Interactors|year=2005|publisher=Springer Netherlands|isbn=978-1-4020-3833-4|doi=10.1007/1-4020-3833-X|pages=237–60|chapter= Keystone Fruit Resources and Australia’s Tropical Rain Forests] However, during a season of fruit scarcity, "F. pleurocarpa" sustained the Musky Rat-kangaroo population at one particular research site

The fruit of "F. pleurocarpa" fruit are relatively small and become soft when ripe. This makes them accessible to the entire fruit-eating community. However, most "F. pleurocarpa" figs are available in the canopy—only a small proportion of the fruit crop falls to the forest floor.

Spectacled Flying-foxes consume "F. pleurocarpa" fruit and act as seed dispersers.cite journal | quotes = no | last = Richards | first = G. C. | year = 1990 | title = The Spectacled Flying-fox, "Pteropus conspicillatus" (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae), in north Queensland. 2. Diet, seed dispersal and feeding ecology | journal = Australian Mammalogy | volume = 13 | issue = 1–2 | pages = 25–31 ]

In a study of fungal succession, 104 species were observed over the course of a three-month incubation of "F. pleurocarpa" leaves. Using different methods, 53 fruiting species and 100 sterile morphospecies were isolated.cite journal | quotes = no | last = Paulus | first = Barbara | coauthors = Paul Gadek, Kevin Hyde | year = 2006 | title = Successional Patterns of Microfungi in Fallen Leaves of "Ficus pleurocarpa" (Moraceae) in an Australian Tropical Rain Forest | journal = Biotropica | volume = 38 | issue = 1 | pages = 42–51 | doi = 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2006.00110.x | url = http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118593876/abstract ] "Cylindrocladium australiense", a new species of fungus in the family Nectriaceae described in 2006, was isolated from "F. pleurocarpa" leaves.cite journal | quotes = no | last = Crous | first = Pedro W. | coauthors = Johannes Z. Groenewald, Jean-Michel Risède, Philippe Simoneau, Kevin D. Hyde | year = 2006 | title = "Calonectria" species and their "Cylindrocladium" anamorphs: species with clavate vesicles | journal =Studies in Mycology | volume = 55 | issue = 1 | pages = 213–26 | url = http://www.studiesinmycology.org/cgi/content/full/55/1/213 ]

Uses

The figs are edible fresh or dried and are described as "tasty at the fully ripe red stage".

References