Ficus microcarpa L. f.

ഇത്തി

Family : MORACEAE

Synonym : Ficus retusa var. nitida sensu Hook. f.

Common Names : Ithi, Ithiyal, Kallithi, Chinese banyan, Indian Laurel

Flowering Period : March-May

Distribution : Indo-Malesia to Pacific Islands and South China

Habitat : Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains

Uses : No known edible use. The root, bark and leaf latex are used medicinally to treat wounds, headache and toothache. The bark and leaf latex is taken internally to treat colic and liver trouble. Patients with fever or headache perspire in the steam of boiling young leaves. Grown as a shade tree for coffee plantations. A fibre from the bark is made into cloth. The latex is used for caulking boats and waterproofing. The wood, including the aerial roots, is used locally in light construction, tool making etc. The wood is used for fuel

Key Characters :

Evergreen trees, usually epiphytic, to 18 m high, aerial roots numerous, slender, arching from the branches; bark surface grey to greyish-brown, smooth; blaze dull yellow; latex milky; branchlets 2-3 mm thick, angled, glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipules 10-15 mm long, lateral, ovate-lanceolate, glabrous or the edges ciliate; cauducous, leaving an annular scar; petiole 10-15 mm long, glandular at apex below, glabrous, flattened above, slender, not articulate; lamina 4-12 x 2-5 cm, elliptic, elliptic-ovate, elliptic-obovate or obovate, base acute or obtuse, apex acute, obtusely acute or retuse, margin entire, undulate, glabrous, coriaceous; 3-5-ribbed from base, lateral nerves 5-9 pairs, pinnate, slender, secondary laterals as prominent as primary, looped near the margin, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers unisexual; inflorescence a syconia, sessile, in axillary pairs, globose, 7 mm across, glabrous, orifice plane or slightly raised, cloned by 3 flat apical bracts; internal bristles minute, sparse; basal bracts 3, 1.5-3.5 x 1.5-2.5 mm, ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, persistent; flowers of 4 kinds; male flowers numerous; sessile or shortly pedicelled; tepals 3, subspathulate, free; stamen 1; filament 0.3 mm; anthers unequal, ovate-oblong, mucronate; female flowers sessile, sepals 3, spathulate, ovary superior, smooth, stigma cylindric or clavate; gall flowers pedicellate; tepals 3, broadly spathulate. Syconium 8-10 mm across, globose, glabrous, pink with yellow shades when ripe; achenes smooth.