Brown-Woolly Fig Fruiting
A large Brown-Woolly Fig tree on an island at about 15m tall. We were lucky to arrive just in time to see it fruiting. However, most of the fruits are still unripe and has not fallen yet. Fruits turn red when ripe.
Figs are unique as their flowers are grown internally inside the fruits so they need specialized pollinating fig wasps to enter the fruits to pollinate its inner flowers. Borneo have around 150 native fig species and I have already documented around one third of it during the 1StopBorneo Wildlife expeditions.
''Ficus drupacea'', also known as the brown-woolly fig or Mysore fig, is a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia and Northeast Australia . It is a strangler fig; it begins its life cycle as an epiphyte on a larger tree, which it eventually engulfs. Its distinctive features include dense, woolly pubescence, bright yellow to red fleshy fruit, and grayish white bark. It can reach heights of 10–30 meters . Its fruit are eaten by pigeons, and it is pollinated by ''Eupristina belgaumensis.'' It occurs.. more
