''Ficus retusa'' is a species of evergreen woody plant in the fig genus, native to the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago is the archipelago between Mainland Southeast Asia and Australia, and is also called Insulindia or the Indo-Australian Archipelago. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of a Malay race, later based ...

and

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms. It is a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical kingdom. It was first recognized as a distinct region ...

floristic region. The species name has been widely mis-applied to '' Ficus microcarpa''.

Description

''Ficus retusa'' is a rapidly growing, rounded, broad-headed, evergreen

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

or tree that can reach in height with an equal spread. The smooth, light grey trunk is quite striking, can grow to around in diameter, and it firmly supports the massively spreading canopy. The tree has glabrous obovate leaves, usually longer than and spirally arranged. It has a gray to reddish bark dotted with small, horizontal flecks, called lenticels, that are used by woody plant species for supplementary gas exchange through the bark. The name is commonly used to refer to ornamental indoor plants (for example bonsai) widely cultivated in temperate regions, but such plants generally belong to another species, '' Ficus microcarpa''. The two species can be distinguished from the length of the leaf blade (usually for ''F. retusa'', and usually less than for ''F. microcarpa'' but rarely up to ).

Notes

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2701705 retusa Flora of Malesia Flora of the Indomalayan realm Garden plants of Asia Ornamental trees Plants used in bonsai fi:Malaganviikuna