''Ficus lacunata'' is a species of

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

in the family

Moraceae Moraceae is a family of flowering plants comprising about 48 genera and over 1100 species, and is commonly known as the mulberry or fig family. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however, their ...

which is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. ''F. lacunata'' is a free-standing tree which grows up to 25 m (82 ft) tall in wet forests in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. ''Ficus lacunata'' is member of the subgenus '' Pharmacosycea''. Members of this subgenus are free-standing trees. Most members of the other main Neotropical subgenus, '' Urostigma'' begin life as hemiepiphytes. It grows in

pluvial In geology and climatology, a pluvial is either a modern climate characterized by relatively high precipitation or an interval of time of variable length, decades to thousands of years, during which a climate is characterized by relatively high ...

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

on the western slope of the

, 1800 to 2200 m (5900 to 6600 mft)

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. It has been classified as a

Vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

based on the fact that it is known from only three locations.

Description

''Ficus lacunata'' trees grow up to 25 m (82 ft) tall. Its leaves range from roughly oval in shape to more narrow with a leathery texture. They range in length from 15 to 21 cm (6–8 in) and in width from 7–10.5 cm (3–4 in). The figs are borne singly on a short petiole up to 1.1 cm (0.4 in) long and are 2–2.9 cm (0.8–1.1 in) in diameter.

References

lacunata Endemic flora of Ecuador Trees of Ecuador Plants described in 1997 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Moraceae-stub