| Type | Indigenous |
|---|---|
| Family | Moraceae |
| Synonym | Urostigma wightianum Miq. |
| Synonym_2 | Ficus infectoria Roxb. |
| Local Name | Cherala |
| Habit | Large sized tree |
| Botanical Features | Deciduous trees, to 20 m high, often epiphytic; aerial roots few, often fluted; bark 10-12 mm thick, surface dark brown, smooth; blaze red; brown; leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipules 10-12 mm long, lateral, broadly ovate, pubescent; petiole 3.7-6 cm long, slender, glabrous, grooved above, articulated, glandular at apex below; lamina 5-17.5 x 3-10 cm, elliptic, oblong, oblong-ovate or ovate, base round, truncate or subcordate, apex, obtusely acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; 3-ribbed from base, lateral nerves 5-15 pairs, pinnate, prominent, faint towards margin, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers unisexual; inflorescence a syconia, axillary, paired, 1-1.5 cm across, globose, often obconical; peduncle 1-6 mm long, slender, pubescent; basal bracts 3, ovate, acute, persistent; orifice plane, closed by 3 flat apical bracts in a disc 1 mm wide, internal bristles abundant, white, chaffy-vesicular; flowers of 4 kinds; male flowers ostiolar, sessile, in 2-3 rings; tepals 2-3, ovate, acute or shortly gamophyllous; stamen 1; filament 0.5 mm; anther oblong, parallel; female flowers sessile; tepals 3-4, free; ovary superior, 1.2 mm, obovoid, sessile or stalked, red-brown; style filiform, tapering; gall flowers sessile or shortly pedicellate; tepals 3-4, reddish, spathulate to linear-lanceolate, free, ovary sessile or stalked, red-brown. Syconium white and fleshed with pink when ripe; achenes smooth. |