Ficus Natalensis

Scientific Name: Ficus natalensis

Common Name: Mugumo or bark cloth fig

Family: Moraceae

Names in other languages: English: Bark-cloth fig Luganda: Mutuba Lugwere: Tera Luo J: Kiditi Lusoga: Mugaire, kiryanyonyi Runyankore: Mutooma,ekitooma.

General Information

A common African fig tree found from West to East, northern Zambia to South Africa. It grows in both wet and dry forest and thickets, in riverine and ground-water forests in higher rainfall woodland and savanna, 10-2,200 m. The tree has been cultivated in all regions of Uganda. It often begins life as an epiphyte then becomes a strangler and replaces the host tree, but may also be quite terrestrial.

Features of Ficus natalensis that make it identifiable:

Bark :is pale light brown almost gray, thin and smooth.

Leaves : rather stiff, long oval, often wider at the tip, about 6 cm

(2.5-10 cm) long, tip rounded or shortly pointed, 5-10 veins on

either side, on a stalk 0.5-2.0 cm long.

Figs: in pairs beside or

just below leaves on stalks 2-10 mm, rounded yellow-red when

ripe 8-18 mm across, 2 mm long, bracts at the base fall off

Uses

Ficus carica Linn (Moraceae) has been used in traditional medicine for a wide range of ailments related to digestive, endocrine, reproductive, and respiratory systems. Additionally, it is also used in gastrointestinal tract and urinary tract infection.