Ficus sarmentosa Buch. ex J. E. Smith

It is a highly variable and common wild species of our area. The plant is found creeping on-rocks and in crevices or climbing on other trees with the help of adventitious roots, up to c. 2300 m from sea level. The figs are said to be eaten.

Shrubs or woody vines. Branchlets grayish white when dry, rugose, glabrous, subglabrous, or densely white-hairy. Stipules lanceolate-ovate, ca. 8 mm, thinly membranous. Leaves distichous; petiole ca. 1 cm, subglabrous; leaf blade ovate, ovate-elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, lanceolate, or oblong, 8-12 × 3-4 cm, ± leathery, both surfaces glabrous or abaxially sparsely brown pubescent, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin entire, apex acute to acuminate; secondary veins 4-12 on each side of midvein, and abaxially slightly raised, tertiary veins honeycomblike. Figs axillary on leafy or on leafless branchlets, solitary or occasionally paired, blackish purple when mature, globose, ± globose, or conic, sometimes slightly depressed, 0.5-2 cm in diam., glabrous, sparsely pubescent, or densely covered with brown hairs, inside with bristles, apical pore slightly concave, sessile or pedunculate; peduncle 0.5-1.5 cm or shorter; involucral bracts triangular, triangular-ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, 2-6 mm, with scattered bristles. Male flowers: near apical pore, pedicellate; calyx lobes 3 or 4, oblanceolate; stamens 2; filaments very short; anthers mucronate. Gall flowers: pedicellate; calyx lobes 4, obovate-spatulate; ovary elliptic; style short; stigma shallowly funnelform. Female flowers: pedicellate; calyx lobes spatulate; ovary obovate; style subapical; stigma thin and long. Achenes ovoid-ellipsoid, with adherent liquid. Fl. May-Jul.

A large, woody creeper or toot climber, with ashy grey to brown bark. Young twigs brownish-pubescent when growing in damp shady places otherwise almost glabrous. Leaves with 8-12 (-15) mm long, hairy petiole; lamina variable, ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate or ± elliptic, 2.5-10 (-12) cm long, 1.5-4.5 cm broad, 3-costate at the rounded, cordate, or ± cuneate base, margins entire, apex acute or acuminate, dorsally glabrous, pubescent to glabrescent beneath, lateral nerves 5-8 pairs, bulging underneath, intercostals irregular; stipules linear to ovate-lanceolate, 6-10 mm long, brownish villose. Hypanthodia usually solitary rarely paired, axillary, sessile to shortly peduncled, globose to ovoid or obovoid, 8-15 mm in diameter, warted or wrinkled, minutely hairy, subtended by 3, ovate, acute usually reflexed basal bracts, apical orifice narrow, covered with minute bracts. Male flowers: pedicellate, dispersed among the gall flowers; sepals 4, oblong-obovate, c. 1.5 mm long, hairy on margins; stamens 2 (-3), filaments united, anthers ovate, pointed. Female flowers: sessile, sepals as in male; ovary ovoid-obovoid, style subterminal, short. Figs usually globose or obovoid, 10-20 mm in diameter, orange-red.

Himalaya (Nepal to NEFA), Burma, India, S. Tibet, China, Taiwan, Indo-China, Malaya, Japan.

Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, NW India, Japan, Kashmir, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim, N Vietnam].

Distribution: Pakistan. (N. W. Hills, Kashmir), Northern India, Bangla Desh, Burma, China.

1400-2500 m

Fl. & Fr.Per.: May-September.

Forests, evergreen broad-leaved forests, scrub, mountains, plains, on rocks or trees; 600-2500 m.

Fruit and cross section of Ficus sarmentosa.

Ficus sarmentosa (Nepali language:Ban Timila) is a fig tree with edible fruit. F. sarmentosa is native to China, Eastern Asia, Indian Subcontinent and Indo-China region. Some of its habitats include forests, scrub, and mountains.