The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Ficus sycomorus
Also called Sycamore Fig, Mulberry Fig, Pharoah Fig, Common Cluster Fig, Sycomore Fig, Sycamore Ficus
Ficus sycomorus is a large, spreading fig tree from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, cultivated since ancient Egypt for its edible figs and shade. It grows best in warm, seasonally dry tropical or subtropical conditions with rich soil and a sunny spot.
Ficus sycomorus, called the sycamore fig or the fig-mulberry (because the leaves resemble those of the mulberry), sycamore, or sycomore, is a fig species that has been cultivated since ancient times.
Two major varieties are known in Egypt: Roumi (also called Falaki or Turki), which has more horizontally spread branches, stouter shoots and petioles, more densely spaced leaves that are wider than they are long, and larger, flatter, broad pink fruits; and Kelabi (also called Arabi or Beledi), which has more vertical branches, is more slender, has smaller leaves and has smaller yellowish pear shaped fruits. In modern history, many Egyptians would once a year (on the day of a particular saint) make a ring of bruises and cuts around the base of their sycamore trees.
According to botanists Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, cultivation of this species was "almost exclusively" by the ancient Egyptians. Remains of F. sycomorus begin to appear in predynastic times and occur in quantity from the start of the third millennium BC. It was the ancient Egyptian tree of life.
Ficus sycomorus is native to Africa south of the Sahel and north of the Tropic of Capricorn, excluding the central-west rainforest areas. It grows naturally in Lebanon; in the southern Arabian Peninsula; in Cyprus; in very localised areas in Madagascar; and in Palestine and Egypt.
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 sycomorus 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.
