RM25.00
Ficus benjamina, commonly known as weeping fig, benjamin fig[3] or ficus tree, and often sold in stores as just ficus, is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae, native to Asia and Australia.[4] It is the official tree of Bangkok. The species is also naturalized in the West Indies and in the states of Florida and Arizona in the United States.[5][6] In its native range, its small fruit are favored by some birds.[7]
Ficus benjamina is a tree reaching 30 m (98 feet) tall in natural conditions, with gracefully drooping branchlets and glossy leaves 6–13 cm (2+3⁄8–5+1⁄8 inches), oval with an acuminate tip. The bark is light gray and smooth. The bark of young branches is brownish. The widely spread, highly branching tree top often covers a diameter of 10 meters. It is a relatively small-leaved fig. The changeable leaves are simple, entire and stalked. The petiole is 1 to 2.5 cm (3⁄8 to 1 inch) long. The young foliage is light green and slightly wavy, the older leaves are green and smooth; the leaf blade is ovate to ovate-lanceolate with wedge-shaped to broadly rounded base and ends with a short dropper tip. The pale glossy to dull leaf blade is 5 to 12 cm (2 to 4+1⁄2 inches) cm long and 2 to 6 cm (1 to 2+1⁄2 inches) wide. Near the leaf margins are yellow crystal cells (“cystolites”). The two membranous, deciduous stipules are not fused, lanceolate and 6 to 12 mm (1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch) (rarely to 15 mm or 9⁄16 inch) long.[8]
F. benjamina is monoecious. The inflorescences are spherical to egg-shaped, shiny green, and have a diameter of 1.5 cm (1⁄2 inch). In the inflorescences are three types of flowers: male and fertile and sterile female flowers. The scattered, inflorescences, stalked, male flowers have free sepals and a stamen. Many fertile female flowers are sessile and have three or four sepals and an egg-shaped ovary. The more or less lateral style ends in an enlarged scar.[citation needed]
The ripe figs (collective fruit) are orange-red and have a diameter of 2.0 to 2.5 cm (3⁄4 to 1 inch).
