''Ficus dammaropsis'', the Highland breadfruit, locally called ''kapiak'' in

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin ( ,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh ; ), often referred to by English speakers as New Guinea Pidgin or simply Pidgin, is an English-based creole languages, English creole language spoken throughou ...

, is a tropical dioecious evergreen

fig tree ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family (biology), family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few spe ...

(subgenus Sycamorus), of the Mulberry 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 ...

) with huge pleated leaves across and up to in length. on petioles as much as long and thick. These emerge from a stipular sheath up to long, the largest of any

dicot The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, ...

. It is native to the highlands and highland fringe of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. It generally grows at altitudes of between . Its fruit, the world's largest figs ( syconia), up to in diameter, are edible but rarely eaten except as an emergency food. There are two fruit colour variants in ''Ficus dammaropsis'', red and green, as illustrated by the photos here. They are pollinated by the tiny fig wasp '' Ceratosolen abnormis''. The young leaves are pickled or cooked and eaten as a vegetable with pig meat by highlanders. The lowland form of this species, with different and smaller flower form and less pleated leaves than ''Ficus dammaropsis'', found commonly below is recognized as a distinct species, '' Ficus brusii''. The species can be found at the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, located in the ‘Yucca Bed’.

Cultivation

With its bold tropical leaves and relative tolerance of cold, ''F. dammaropsis'' is cultivated as an ornamental tree in frost-free climates.

References

* * dammaropsis Flora of New Guinea Flora of Papua New Guinea Flora of Western New Guinea Garden plants of Australasia Ornamental trees {{Moraceae-stub