135

Ficus arnottiana (Miq.) Miq.

Synonym	:	Ficus courtallensis (Miq.) Baill.
Family	:	Moraceae
Local name	:	English - Indian Rock Fig Malayalam - Kallal, Kallarayal
Flowering and fruiting period	:	December-April
Distribution	:	India and Sri Lanka
Distribution in Kerala	:	Palakkad, Kottayam, Kasaragode, Kollam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur
Habitat	:	Semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests
Uses	:	Leaf decoction is used as tea and sterilizer. Leaves and bark used in medical applications for cuts, wounds and cutaneous infections.
Key Botanical Characters:   Deciduous independent trees, up to 10 m high, aerial roots absent; bark surface grey-brown, smooth, latex milky. Leaves simple, alternate spiral. Flowers unisexual; inflorescence a syconia, in axillary pairs or crowded near the apex, sessile or shortly pedunculate, globose, glabrous; flowers of 4 kinds; tepals red, more or less gamophyllous, 3-4 lobed, fleshy; male flowers sessile, around the orifice and sparsely scattered in the interior of the syconia; stamens 1; female flowers sessile, sparsely scattered in the interior of syconia, cream, ovary superior, depressed globose; style filiform; stigma flat gall flowered stalked; neutar flowers few. Synconium yellowish-brown when ripe; achenes smooth.