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Ficus verruculosa

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Ficus verruculosa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Moraceae
Tribe: Ficeae
Genus: Ficus
Species:
F. verruculosa
Binomial name
Ficus verruculosa

Ficus verruculosa, the water fig, is a species of fig from sub-saharan Africa.

It is found from north eastern South Africa, northern Botswana and Namibia to Uganda and west to Nigeria in riverine and swamp fringes or grassland, always near water.[1] It is pollinated by the wasp Platyscapa binghami.[2]

The growth form of Ficus verruculosa is as a shrub, or weak-stemmed, sparsely branched shrub 0.2-0.6 m tall, less often a small tree up to 12m, often forming low, creeping thickets. Leaves oblong to lanceolate, 3.5-20 x 1.5-8.5 cm, leathery, hairless. Figs are produced mostly in pairs in leaf axils, greenish when unripe, ripening to red[3] and are fed on by African green pigeons Treron calvus.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Flora of Zimbabwe: Species information: Ficus verruculosa". www.zimbabweflora.co.zw. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  2. ^ "Ficus verruculosa - FigWeb". www.figweb.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  3. ^ CJB, CJB, DSIC, Cyrille Chatelain -. "CJB - African plant database - Detail". www.ville-ge.ch. Retrieved 2017-08-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Fig-eating by vertebrate frugivores: a global review", Mike Shanahan, Samson So, Stephen G. Compton and Richard Corlett, Biological Reviews (2001), 76, pp. 529–572
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