''Ficus burtt-davyi'' is a fig species endemic to

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...

, belonging to the Mulberry family of

Moraceae The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 38 genera and over 1100 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however ...

. It grows in coastal and inland forests up to 1500m, from the vicinity of

Mossel Bay Mossel Bay ( af, Mosselbaai) is a harbour town of about 99,000 people on the Southern Cape (or Garden Route) of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the ...

in the

Southern Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

to southern

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

- the forms growing on coastal dunes in the northern part of its range are salt tolerant and form low thickets on the margins of woodland. In the southern and eastern Cape forests the species becomes a strangler or liane, while when found on rocky outcrops and cliffs it usually develops into a rock-splitter. In its epiphytic form this species starts its life in the forks of tree branches, where an accumulation of organic debris aids germination and initial development. It sends down long, thin roots to reach soil and water below. The roots thicken and grow in number with the passage of time, and can eventually enclose the supporting tree, strangling and killing it, leaving the fig to stand alone with no competition for resources. Growing without support the stems may reach 1m in diameter, and up to 20m in height, with a dense canopy and making an excellent shade tree. Bark is thin, smooth, grey and fibrous, and is much used by indigenous tribes as rough cordage. Branchlets are covered with minute, soft, erect hairs. Its tolerance of drought conditions makes it a favourite species among Bonsai growers. Fruits are important as both food and in traditional medicine, and contain laxative substances, flavonoids, sugars, vitamins A and C, acids and enzymes. The latex is an allergen and serious eye irritant. There are some 900 species of figs worldwide, each employing the same remarkable manner of pollination where, with rare exceptions, each species of fig relying on one particular species of fig wasp from the family

Agaonidae The family Agaonidae is a group of pollinating and nonpollinating fig wasps. They spend their larval stage inside the fruits of figs. The pollinating wasps (Agaoninae, Kradibiinae, and Tetrapusiinae) are the mutualistic partners of the fig tree ...

to carry out the fertilisation. ''F. burtt-davyi'' is no exception to the rule and depends on the minute

fig wasp Fig wasps are wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea which spend their larval stage inside figs. Most are pollinators but others simply feed off the plant. The non-pollinators belong to several groups within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, while the ...

''Elisabethiella baijnathi'' Wiebes. to effect this. Pollinator-specific volatile attractants are released through the ostioles of ripe figs and in the case of ''F. burtt-davyi'' attract only adult female ''Elisabethiella baijnathi''. Fig trees are keystone species in many tropical and subtropical ecosystems. Due to their steady production of fruit throughout the year, they feed a wide spectrum of animal life, and are repaid by animals' dispersing their seeds. Fruits are green with white spots when immature, yellowish when ripe, growing singly or in pairs from leaf axils, 5-10mm in diameter. Fourcade described the wood as "very light and soft, very weak, elastic, porous, with alternate concentric layers of soft and firm tissue; medullary rays fine and close; pores moderately large and numerous, irregularly distributed; colour white or grey, tinged with brown; makes rough boards, but decays rapidly if exposed to the weather." The species was named in honour of the botanist Joseph Burtt Davy, who worked in South Africa between 1903 and 1919.

Synonyms

*''Ficus natalensis var. puberula''

Warb. Otto Warburg (20 July 1859 – 10 January 1938) was a German-Jewish botanist. He was also a notable industrial agriculture expert, and president of the Zionist Organization from 1911 to 1921. Biography Otto Warburg was born in Hamburg on 20 ...

in Viert. Nat. Ges. Zürich 51: 142 (1906). Type from S. Africa. *''Ficus natalensis var. minor'' (Sond.) Warb. in Viert. Nat. Ges. Zürich 51: 142 (1906). *''Urostigma natalense var. minor'' Sond. in Linnaea 23: 137 (1850). Lectotype from S. Africa, chosen by Berg in Fl. Gabon 26: 173 (1984).

Bibliography

''Figs Of Southern And South-Central Africa''
- John & Sandra Burrows, Umdaus Press, Pretoria (2003)

References

External links

"The Queen of Figs" videoiSpot page''"The phytophagous insect community on the Veld Fig, Ficus Burtt-Davyi Hutch"'' - Sally Jane Ross (1994)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15477490 burtt-davyi