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Ficus rubiginosa
Also called Rusty Fig, Illawarra Fig, Little Leaf Fig, Rusty Leaved Fig, Larger Small Leaf Fig, Small Leaf Fig, Figwood
Port Jackson fig is a large, spreading Australian tree that can also start life as a hemiepiphyte or lithophyte on rocks and other plants. It is a long-lived shade tree best given space, as its roots and dropped fruit can be messy.
Ficus rubiginosa, the rusty fig or Port Jackson fig (damun in the Dharug language), is a species of flowering plant in the genus Ficus native to eastern Australia. Beginning as a seedling that grows on other plants (hemiepiphyte) or rocks (lithophyte), F. rubiginosa matures into a tree 30 m (100 ft) high and nearly as wide with a yellow-brown buttressed trunk. The leaves are oval and glossy green and measure from 4 to 19.3 cm (1+1⁄2–7+1⁄2 in) long and 1.25 to 13.2 cm (1⁄2–5+1⁄4 in) wide.
The fruits are small, round, and yellow, and can ripen and turn red at any time of year, peaking in spring and summer. Like all figs, the fruit is in the form of a syconium, an inverted inflorescence with the flowers lining an internal cavity. F. rubiginosa is exclusively pollinated by the fig wasp species Pleistodontes imperialis, which may comprise four cryptospecies.
Ficus rubiginosa was first cultivated in the United Kingdom in 1789, where it is grown in glasshouses. It is commonly used as a large ornamental tree in eastern Australia, in the North Island of New Zealand, and also in Hawaii and California, where it is also listed as an invasive species in some areas. It is useful as a shade tree in public parks and on golf courses. Not as prodigious as other figs, F. rubiginosa is suited to slightly more confined areas, such as lining car parks or suburban streets. However, surface roots can be large and intrusive and the thin bark readily damaged when struck. Tolerant of acid or alkaline soils, it is hardy to US Hardiness Zones 10B and 11, reaching 10 m (30 ft) high in 30 years. Planting trees 8–12 m (30–40 ft) apart will eventually result in a continuous canopy. The trees are of great value in providing fruit for birds and mammals, though drop large quantities of fruit and leaves, leaving a mess underfoot.
In a brief description, William Guilfoyle recorded a variegated fig from New South Wales "12–15 ft high" in 1911 as F.
Ficus rubiginosa's range spans the entire eastern coastline of Australia, from the top of the Cape York Peninsula in north Queensland to the vicinity of Bega on the south coast of New South Wales. The range extends westwards to Porcupine Gorge National Park in Queensland and the far western plains in New South Wales. F. rubiginosa f. rubiginosa and F. rubiginosa f. glabrescens are found over most of the range, though the latter does not occur south past the New South Wales-Queensland border region. Lithophytic, hemiepiphytic, and tree forms can be found together in local populations of plants.
Ficus annulata · Mosaic Fig · Ficus atricha · Florida strangler fig · Roxburgh fig · Indian banyan · Weeping fig · Longleaf Fig · Ficus brachypoda · Fig · Ficus caulocarpa · Ficus celebensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ficus rubiginosa 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.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
