Pharmacosycea Miquel, London J. Bot. 6: 525. 1847.

Trees, rarely shrubs, terrestrial, very rarely with adventitious roots; monoecious. Stipules fully amplexicaul. Leaf blade margin entire except sometimes for juvenile plants; wax glands absent or in axils of main basal veins. Figs usually axillary on normal leafy stems, rarely cauliflorous, mostly paired, carpodermis with stone cells absent or diffuse, interfloral bracts often present, internal bristles mostly absent, apical pore with interlocking bracts, few upper ones visible; peduncle with 3 basal bracts in a collar; lateral bracts absent. Perianth lobes entire, red, sometimes with white margins. Male flowers: scattered among females, often pedicellate; stamen 1 or 2(or 3); filaments ± free; pistillode often present. Female flowers: ovary white or reddish at base; stigma usually 2-parted, subulate and not conspicuously papillate. Fruit an achene, smooth.

Members of this subgenus are pollinated by fig wasps belonging to the genera Dolichorus and Tetrapus.

About 80 species: tropics of America, Asia, and Madagascar (but not mainland Africa); four species in China.