Banana fig is a rainforest fig tree from northeast Queensland that starts life as a hemiepiphyte perching on other trees before growing into a tree up to 25 m tall. It needs warm, humid, bright conditions and is usually grown outdoors in frost-free climates.
Family
Moraceae (Fig & mulberry family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Bright indirect, Part shade
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist during growth and let the top layer dry slightly between waterings.
Soil
Free-draining, rich organic potting mix or loamy garden soil.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Toxic to cats and dogs (ASPCA).
Native range
NE. Queensland
Climate
wet tropical
About
Ficus pleurocarpa, commonly known as the banana fig, karpe fig or gabi fig, is a fig that is endemic to the wet tropical rainforests of northeastern Queensland, Australia. It has characteristic ribbed orange and red cylindrical syconia. It begins life as a hemiepiphyte, later becoming a tree up to 25 m (82 ft) tall. F. pleurocarpa is one of the few figs known to be pollinated by more than one species of fig wasp.
Where it grows
Ficus pleurocarpa is an Australian endemic. It is found in north-east Queensland, from Cape Tribulation south to the Atherton Tableland. It grows in lowland and upland wet tropical rainforests from sea level up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) above sea level.
Uses
The figs are edible fresh or dried and are described as "tasty at the fully ripe red stage".
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ficus pleurocarpa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.