Ficus ingens (Miq.) Miq.
Eng.: Red-leaved fig. Spa.: Higuera hojirroja. Ara.: Kerma, kermusa. Tamahaq: Taguerurt, tin, atafi.
Shrub to tree, evergreen, up to 10 m in height, with rounded to umbrella-shaped crown. Trunk with matt grey bark, fissured in old specimens; young branches robust and bark with a slight yellow tint; both branches and leaves produce a white latex when cut. Leaves with petiole as long as or longer than the leaf-blade (up to 15 cm; young leaves red-coppery, adult leaves greenish-whitish; ovate to oval-oblong, 7-18 × 4-16 cm, entire, coriaceous, glabrous, somewhat shiny on the upper side, finely verrucose on the underside, with fine reticulate venation, yellowish, with prominent midrib on the underside; 7-10 lateral veins, arising from the centre in an obtuse angle and bifurcate near the margin; acute at the apex and highly variable at the base, from straight to deeply cordate, which is the most common; tertiary venation not reticulate. Male flowers in the ostiolar zone, with 3-4 fused tepals and 1 stamen per flower; female flowers with 3-4 fused tepals. Syconia axillary and subspherical, often paired, with short peduncle, rounded at the base, 9-18 mm in diameter, glabrous, with imbricated ostiolar external bracts, the inner bracts somewhat inserted into the ostiolar cavity; as they mature they turn from whitish to pink, red and even purple.
Flowering:
April to February.
Fruiting:
Mainly from July to January, but under favourable conditions syconia can be found practically all year round.
Habitat:
Rocky slopes, rocky outcrops and watercourse margins on many different substrates, from lava plains (malpais) to limestone, sandstone and even dolomite.
Distribution:
Widespread in tropical Africa, reaching towards the S to South Africa. In North Africa, it still survives in the central Sahara, where it is very rare; there are only a few citations from the massifs of Ahaggar , Tassili-n-Ajjer, Aïr, Tibesti and Tefedest.
Conservation status:
Common and widely distributed species, it does not seem threatened. Currently, in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is evaluated as Least Concern (LC) at a global level. (Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) & IUCN SSC Global Tree Specialist Group. 2019). However, the Saharan populations, that can be considered of high genetic and biogeographic value, are threatened by logging and desertification.
