Cuming's Fig

Description:

Fruit of a male Ficus cumingii showing its opened ostiole hole where fig wasps have entered. This is a common fig species from Philippines which have successfully arrived the east coast of Sabah, Borneo. This species is unique where it has some leaves that are growing opposite to each other which is unlike all the other fig species. Leaves are are very rough with tiny hard hairs. This is the male fruit as fig wasps form their galls inside it. This turns out to be the first live specimen photographic record for Borneo.

Habitat:

Around an abandoned building regrown with bushes near the city.

Notes:

Previous records has shown that this species is very rare in Borneo but we realize that they are quite common and just growing in places where botanists wouldn't bother to look. My organization (1StopBorneo Wildlife) stumbled upon this while trying to record important fig trees in the urban wildlife ecosystem. In our nursery, seeds of this species germinate quite well.