407

 Ficus amplissima J. E. Smith in Rees

Synonym	:	Ficus indica Willd.
Family	:	Moraceae
Flowering and fruiting period	:	September-December
Distribution	:	Sri Lanka, Maldives and Peninsular India
Distribution in kerala	:	Alappuzha, Kasaragode, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikkode
Habitat	:	Evergreen, moist and dry deciduous forests
Key botanical characters:  Large spreading trees, to 25 m high; aerial roots few more; bark greenish-grey, smooth; blaze yellow; exudation milky; branchlets glabrescent or puberulous, pale. Leaves simple, alternate; stipule lateral, lanceolate; petiole slender, grooved above, glabrous, glandular at apex below, not articulated; lamina broadly ovate or ovate-oblong, base round, truncate or acute, apex acute, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; 3-ribbed from base, lateral nerves 8-10 pairs, parallel, secondary laterals present, slender prominent, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers unisexual; inflorescence a syconia, monoecious, geminate, axillary, subsessile, crowned towards the end of branchlets, depressed globose; basal bracts 3, obtuse, glabrous or puberulous, more or less concealed, orifice cicular, closed by 3 flat apical scales, in terminal bristles none; flowers of 4 kinds; tepals 2 in pedicellate flowers and 3 in sessile flowers, reddish, ovate acute, free, margin scarious;  female flower sessile, tepals 3-4, reddish, ovate acute, free;. Syconium red or purple,achenes smooth.

.