Digital Garden

Ficus benjamina

 Weeping Fig 

 Scientific name- Ficus benjamina L. 

Common name- Weeping Fig 

Family- Moraceae 

Habit type- Tree 

Distribution- The plant is native to a large area including India, southern China, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, the Philippines, northern Australia, and the islands of the South Pacific. The tree is cultivated in many parts of the world including American Samoa (Tutuila), French Polynesia, Marshall Islands (Kwajalein), Majuro, Tonga as well as Florida, in the United States. The tree grows naturally in Asia and northern Australia but has long since been a popular houseplant here in Europe. 

Stem 

The trunk is somewhat pale and smooth and can grow up to 30 cm in girth on mature, outdoor trees. Bark is light gray and smooth. The bark of young branches is brownish. 

Leaves 

● Leaves are simple, leathery and intensely green, their shape is mainly ovate but often lanceolate or broad – elliptic, and their dimensions range between 3.6 to 12.5 cm in length, and 1.5 to 6 cm in width. 

● They are arranged alternately on the shoots, with which they are connected by a petiole 5 to 30 mm long and 0.7 to 1.5 mm in diameter, which is axially sulcata and has a permanent skin. 

● The base of the lamina is rounded to broad cuneate shaped and sometimes cordate, the margins are entire, while the apex is relatively short and acuminate. 

● The cystoliths are visible on the adaxial surface of the blade as raised dots, and the waxy glands are either absent or present at the base of the mid vein, at the 

junction with petiole. 

● On either side of the mid vein are 8 to 10 almost regularly spaced secondary nerves, which are anastomose near the margins, while the tertiary nerves are also visible. 

● The stipules are 2, amplexicaul, caducous, membranous, and glabrous, lanceolate and 8 to 20 mm long. 

● Leaves can be a shiny dark green or light green or creamy white and become darker green as the plant ages. 

Inflorescence: Hypanthodium 

Flowers 

● Hypanthodium are a special form of inflorescence and not the botanical fruit of the tree. Inside them are bearing the flowers (florets), which are of 3 types, including the males and the fertile females and the sterile females (or galls) – all hairless. 

● The male florets are few in number, are carried on a short peduncle, have a stamen on a relatively long filament, and are surrounded by a three-lobed or four-lobed calyx, with broadly ovate lobes. 

● The female florets are sessile, they have a short and curved style (lateral) with an enlarged stigma, and they are surrounded by a three-lobed calyx, with shortly spatulate lobes. 

● The gall florets are numerous, sometimes they have a peduncle and sometimes they do not, they have a short and curved style (lateral), and they are surrounded by a three-lobed, four-lobed or five-lobed calyx, with narrowly spatulated lobes. 

Fruit 

● The syconia, which are joined directly to the hypanthium, grow in the axils of the leaves, singly or more usually in pairs. 

● They have a spherical-ovoid or elliptic shape, sometimes they are pear-shaped, and their color is initially green and then purple, yellow, red, or dark red when ripe, with indistinguishable protruding rounded white spots on the surface. 

● Their size varies, having dimensions of 0.7 to 1 cm width, 0.8 to 1.5 cm length and a diameter of 2.0 to 2.5 cm (3⁄4 to 1 inch). 

● Also, the syconia enclose 2 to 3 unequal persistent bracts at the base, 0.5-1.5 mm wide which are crescentic and hairless, while the umbonate ostiole area is enclosed by another 3 minutes, flat and smooth imbricate bracts, 1.5 to 2 mm wide. 

● Inside the figs are the real botanical fruits, the achene, which have an ovoid-reniform shape, while they are shorter than the persistent style. 

Etymology of the Species Name 

The name of the genus benjamina implies a strong dose of surrealism, because it refers to a resin, to the Benzoin resin, which is not contained in the tree. 

On the other hand, Benzoin resin or, to be more precise, balsamic Benzoin, i.e. the resinous exudate or sap of Benzoin, has as its sole source the bark of various species of trees in the Styrax genus, and especially of the species Styrax benzoin – while even in them the chemical compound Benzoin is absent, although it is prepared in the laboratory with the contribution of Benzoin resin. 

It could therefore be said that while the name benjamina is a shining example of scientific surrealism, it is also a tangible example of completely failed botanical naming – an example of what not to do. 

FACTS & MEDICINAL USES 

Its latex and some fruit extracts are used by indigenous communities to treat skin disorders, inflammation, piles, vomiting, leprosy, malaria, nose-diseases and cancer besides the use as a general tonic. 

The plant is also used as antimicrobial, antinociceptive (response to toxic chemicals), antipyretic (reduce fever), hypotensive and anti-dysentery remedy. The leaves and twigs are used as insect repellent. 

The leaves, bark and fruits of F. benjamina contain various bioactive chemical constituents like cinnamic acid, lactose, naringenin, quercetin, caffeic acid and stigmasterol. 

The extracts and fractions of stem, root and leaves exhibited considerable antimicrobial activity against four bacterial and two fungal strains. 

The range of antimicrobial activity expressed as diameters of inhibition zone (DIZ) for stem was 10.5 mm (n-hexane) - 22.83 mm (n-butanol). All the butanol fractions exhibited strong activity. 

Methanol extract (22.63 mm against P. aeruginosa) and n-butanolic fraction (22.83 against B. subtilis) of stem showed substantial activity. 

In Vietnam, latex applied to itches. 

In India the milky juice of the plant is used to treat whitening of the cornea of the eye.