Ficus pumila
Common name
creeping fig
Family
Moraceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Conservation status
Not applicable
Habitat
Terrestrial. Moderate to full sun. Vicinity of old or abandoned gardens, climbing up buildings, walls, telegraph poles.
Detailed description
Evergreen, monoecious, scandent shrub becoming +/- erect at flowering. Young stems moderately to densely hairy, becoming glabrous. Leaves glabrous above, finely hairy below when young but becoming +/- glabrous, not lobed, entire, ovate to elliptic, cordate and often asymmetric at base, obtuse to acute, 1.5-3-(4) cm long on young scandent shoots, up to 12 cm long on the more erect flowering shoots; veins very prominently raised below; petiole< blade; stipules 2 per node, densely hairy, triangular, caducous. Inflorescence hairy, pyriform to subglobose, green, shortly pedunculate. Syncarp purplish pink, 2-8 cm long; achenes not seen. (Webb et al. 1988).
Flower colours
Green
Year naturalised
1981
Origin
Japan, China
Etymology
ficus: The Latin name for fig tree, possibly derived from the Hebrew word fag
pumila: Small
Reason For Introduction
Ornamental
Life Cycle Comments
Perennial. Can’t set seed but climbs and adheres to paintwork etc, resulting in damage to walls [not seen as a problem yet (Ewen Cameron 1996)]