Ficus microcarpa
(Indian laurel tree)

Preferred Scientific Name

• Ficus microcarpa L. f.

Preferred Common Name

• Indian laurel tree

Other Scientific Names

• Ficus microcarpa var. hillii (F.M.Bailey) Corner
• Ficus microcarpa var. saffordii (Merr.) Corner
• Ficus retusa auct. non L.

International Common Names

• English: Chinese banyan; Chinese banyan fig; curtain fig; fig; Hill's weeping fig; Indian laurel fig; Indian-laurel; laurel fig; laurel fig tree; Malay banyan; Malayan banyan; small-fruit fig
• Spanish: laurel de la India
• French: arbre de l'Intendance; laurier d'Inde
• Chinese: rong shu

Local Common Names

• Dominican Republic: arbol de Washington; laurel; laurel de India; laurel de la India
• Germany: Lorbeer Feigenbaum
• Guam: nunu
• Indonesia/Java: bibis; bulu; kowang; wunut
• Japan: gajumaru
• Lesser Antilles: evergreen
• Malaysia: ara jejawi
• Micronesia, Federated states of: au au
• Northern Mariana Islands: nunu
• Palau: lulk
• Puerto Rico: jaguey

EPPO code

• FIUMI (Ficus microcarpa)

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Urticales
•                         Family: Moraceae
•                             Genus: Ficus
•                                 Species: Ficus microcarpa

Often called the mulberry family, Moraceae consists of about 40 genera and 1000 species of trees, shrubs, lianas, or rarely herbs, nearly all with milky sap, and mainly of tropical or subtropical origin (University of Hawaii, 2014). The milky sap of various Moraceae species contain ‘heart poisons’ that are used as dart poisons in some cultures; other plant parts such as leaves and fruit juices have also been reported to cause allergic and toxic reactions in humans and livestock (Frohne and Pfa¨nder, 2005). Many genera of this family are well-known as food crops and include Artocarpus, the tropical food staple breadfruit and jackfruit genus, Ficus, the fig genus, and Morus, the mulberry genus.

Ficus is a large genus of about 800-1000 tree and shrub species native to the tropics and subtropics that are often cultivated beyond their native range for their edible figs or as ornamentals. Members of this genus are difficult to distinguish by their flowers, but can be differentiated by habit, whether they are banyans or not, by leaf shape, and by their figs (Whistler, 2000).

The species name F. microcarpa refers to the species’ small-sized figs, about 8 mm in diameter (Little and Skolmen, 1989). The name has been misapplied to Ficus retusa and Ficus nitida, and these species reportedly all have the common name ‘laurel de la India’ (Acevedo-Rodriguez and Strong, 2012; Oviedo-Prieto et al., 2012; Missouri Botanical Garden, 2014). Several species are currently being reviewed as synonyms of F. microcarpa, and infraspecific taxa under review include F. microcarpa var. hillii (F.M.Bailey) Corner and F. microcarpa var. naumannii (Engl.) Corner (Missouri Botanical Garden, 2014).

Variable in habit, often epiphytic, subscandent shrubs when young, in maturity spreading evergreen trees with large branches and numerous aerial roots hanging from the trunk and branches, these sometimes reaching the soil to form pillar-like roots. Leaves: variable, coriaceous, oblong, elliptic to broadly elliptic or obovate, usually 5-8 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, glabrous, margins entire, petioles 0.6-2 cm long. Flowers: synconia sessile, arising among or just below the leaves, depressed-globose, 6-10 mm in diameter, subtended by 3 broadly ovate, ± persistent bracts. 

F. microcarpa is native to the Old World tropics but has been widely cultivated pantropically, and, in many places where its species-specific pollinator wasp has been introduced, F. microcarpa has naturalized or in some cases become invasive. In the US state of Florida, the species was said to have first been planted by Thomas Edison in Fort Meyers as a gift from Harvey Firestone, and has been present since at least 1912 (Kaufman and Kaufman, 2007); it began spreading by seed in the 1970s after an apparently accidental introduction of its species-specific pollinating wasp, and is now known to be invasive in Florida (IFAS, 2014).

Similarly, in the West Indies the species was not listed in Britton’s work on Bermuda (1918) but is now known to be a notorious invasive species there following the accidental introduction of its wasp sometime in the 1980s (Starr et al., 2003; Randall, 2012; Bermuda Department of Conservation Services, 2014). Date of the species’ introduction to the West Indies region is uncertain, but, based on its exclusion from Britton’s work on Bermuda (1918) and Bello’s (1881; 1883) work on Puerto Rico, it may have occurred relatively recently. Britton did collect specimens in 1903 from Cuba and in 1925 from Puerto Rico that are now held in the New York Botanical Garden herbarium.

In Hawaii, the pollinator wasp was intentionally introduced in 1938, and since then F. microcarpa has become a high-risk major invasive species across the islands (PIER, 2014). The species has become an established alien species in Sicily, Italy (DAISIE, 2014). In Pakistan, the species is occasionally planted in gardens and nurseries in Karachi and Lahore (Flora of Pakistan, 2014). In other places, the species has been cultivated as a common ornamental but does not appear to have naturalized due to the absence of its pollinator wasp. 

Special soil tolerances

• infertile

F. microcarpa is dispersed by several different vectors. Seeds are spread both locally and long distance by over 200 vertebrate species that reportedly consume the synconia figs, mainly birds and some fruit bats, as well as dispersal by ants (Shanahan et al., 2001; Starr et al., 2003). In Florida, seeds are dispersed by ants attracted to an oily tissue coating the seed (Nadel et al., 1991).

F. microcarpa is known to negatively impact native flora and ecosystems by not only strangling and replacing host trees during its early life as an epiphyte, but by forming dense canopies that shade out native flora. The extensive root systemst can damage infrastructure and anything else in the ground surrounding the tree. 

Seedlings of F. microcarpa can sprout almost anywhere that a seed lands, including walls, roofs and gutters of buildings. The root systems can be very damaging to buildings and stonework. In Bermuda, the plant is therefore considered a threat to historic buildings as well as to the natural environment (Bermuda Department of Conservation Services, 2014). In Hawaii, it damages concrete ditches which transport water (Starr et al., 2003).

• Invasive in its native range
• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Abundant in its native range
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Tolerant of shade
• Fast growing
• Has high reproductive potential
• Has propagules that can remain viable for more than one year

• Damaged ecosystem services
• Host damage
• Infrastructure damage

• Competition - shading
• Competition - strangling
• Parasitism (incl. parasitoid)
• Rapid growth
• Rooting

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately
• Difficult to identify/detect as a commodity contaminant

F. microcarpa has been introduced and cultivated pantropically for use an ornamental plant (Wiersema and Leon, 1999). In southern India the species is reportedly cultivated as a shade tree in coffee plantations, and it is abundantly planted in southeast Asia and other tropical regions as an ornamental tree, as well as for its use in traditional medicine in India, Malaysia, and southern China (Hanelt et al., 2001). The species is grown as both an indoor house plant and as a shade tree in Puerto Rico, where it has now become persistent (Liogier and Martorell, 2000).