苹果榕 ping guo rong

Ficus hainanensis Merrill & Chun; F. regia Miquel; F. roxburghii Miquel.

Trees, 5-10 m tall, crown wide, d.b.h. 10-15 cm; dioecious. Bark gray, smooth. Branchlets sparsely pubescent. Stipules caducous, ovate-lanceolate, 1-1.5 cm, glabrous or puberulent. Leaves alternate; petiole 4-6 cm; leaf blade obovate-elliptic to elliptic, 12-25 × 6-23 cm, papery, abaxially densely small tuberculate, adaxially glabrous, base shallowly cordate to broadly cuneate, margin irregularly toothed on apical 2/3, apex acute to acuminate; veins with sparse slender white hairs when young, basal lateral veins extending to middle of blade or beyond, secondary veins 4 or 5 on each side of midvein and abaxially prominent. Figs clustered on short branchlets of old stems, dark red when mature, pear-shaped to ± globose, with 4-6 longitudinal ridges and small tubercles, 2-3.5 cm in diam., puberulent, basally attenuated into a short stalk, apical pore depressed, bracts ovate and rosulate; peduncle 2.5-3.5 cm; involucral bracts triangular-ovate. Male flowers: near apical pore, shortly pedicellate; calyx lobes 2, connate for most of length, thinly membranous; stamens 2. Gall flowers: many, on middle or lower part of fig, pedicellate; calyx lobes connate, thinly membranous; ovary obovoid; style lateral, short. Female flowers: shortly pedicellate; calyx 3-lobed; style lateral, longer than in gall flowers; stigma with hairs. Achenes obovoid, smooth. Fl. Sep-Apr, fr. May-Jun.

Valleys, along streams, moist soil areas; 200-2100 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam].

The figs are dark red, edible, and sweet.