848
Ficus
tinctoria G. Forst.
Synonym
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:
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Ficus altimeraloo
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Family
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Moraceae
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Local name
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Malayalam-Itthi
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Flowering and fruiting
period
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March-April
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Distribution
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Indo-Malesia
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Distribution in Kerala
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All Districts
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Habitat
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Moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains
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Uses
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The plant is gathered from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and
source of fibre and dyestuff.
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Key botanical
characters :
Small trees, often epiphytic with
interlacing aerial roots; bark grey; blaze yellow; exudation milky;
branchlets glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate; Flowers unisexual;
inflorescence a syconia, axillary, usually paired or clustered, rarely
solitary, globose; peduncle slender, scabrous, body scabrous; basal bracts 3,
small, closed by several small apical scales; internal bristles minute,
abundant; flowers of 4 kinds, male and gall flowers in same receptacle;
female in separate; male flowers ostiolar, in 1-2 rows, sessile or
pedicellate, oblong; tepals 3-6, free, white, scabrous, puberulous; female
flowers sessile; tepals 4, oblong, free, white, scabrous, puberulous; ovary
superior, sessile, obovoid-globose, white; style lateral; gall flowers
sessile or pedicellate; tepals as in male flowers; Syconium yellow when ripe;
achene keeled or not.
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