Shrub or small deciduous tree, monoecious, up to 6(10) m in height. Very open in appearance, with broadly rounded crown. Trunk tortuous, with bark greyish-whitish, rough, slightly fissured or not at all fissured except at the base of very old copies. Branches extended or extended-erect, often falling down to the ground with their own weight, becoming creeping. Bark on old branches of the same colour as the trunk, although somewhat less rough; bark of the younger branches green, rough, with short hairs. Leaves deciduous, alternate, large, 10-35 \u00d7 8-28 cm, variably in shape but \u00b1 deeply palmate, with lobes entire or slightly divided, rarely leaves almost whole or completely undivided (deltoid); leaf basis generally slightly cordiform, lobes obtuse or rarely subacute, margin undulate with obtuse teeth; dark green on the upper side, rugose, rough, with short subconical hairs; glaucous on the underside, lighter and less rough, with similar hairs. Petiole long (2-10 cm), hairy or pulverulent. Branches and leaves produce a whitish latex, pungent, irritant. Male and female flowers minute (1.5-2.5 mm long), with a single whorl of 5 linear-lanceolate parts; enclosed inside a thick pear-shaped receptacle, with a pore at the apex, which developed from a short and thick peduncle that has enlarged and invaginated; male flowers, with 3 stamens (longer than the perianth), located above the female flowers; some female flowers with a well developed ovary and others atrophied, sterile. Wasps carry out pollination or \u201ccaprification\u201d inside this receptacle. Fruits a set of minute achenes enclosed in a syconium or “fig”, developed from the accrescent and fleshy receptacle, pyriform, at first green and \u00b1 upright, turning from green to purplish-black when mature, and pendant until it drops. 2n = 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-12651","species","type-species","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n