Shortleaf Fig

Appearance

''Ficus citrifolia'' trees typically grow 15 m tall, and may cover a wide area due to their ability to drop aerial roots from branches and spread horizontally, fusing with the parent tree as they grow. They have a broad top, light grey bark, some aerial roots and milky sap. The leaves of ''F. citrifolia'' are dark green. They are oval shaped with a rounded base and pointed tip. Small flowers are enclosed in open ended fruit. The fruit appears on the ends of long stalks protruding from the leaf axils. Fruit turn from yellow to dark-red when ripe. This fruit is sweet and can be eaten raw.

Naming

''Ficus citrifolia'' is considered a tropical keystone species. Figs are a major component of the diets of more species of animals than any other tropical perennial fruit. Since ''F. citrifolia'' fruits year round many primates, birds and other species, feed exclusively on figs during seasons when other fruit is scarce. Additionally, the knobby, hollow, lattice-like trunk of this tree provides a home for thousands of invertebrates, rodents, bats, birds and reptiles.

''F. citrifolia'' is considered common and is not in danger of extinction.

Habitat

New trees begin their life as an epiphyte, a strategy which allows them to avoid competition for light and land. ''F. citrifolia'' commonly attacks palms, bald cypress, oaks and other trees, strangling them as it grows.

''Ficus citrifolia'' is under strong selective pressure to flower and produce fruit year round due to its mutualistic relationship with its pollinating agaonid wasp. Agaonid wasps have a symbiotic relationship with figs such that a given agaonid species acts as a pollinator for just one species of fig, and a particular fig species is pollinated by just one species of wasp. ''F. citrifolia'' is pollinated by ''P. assuetus''. After pollination, figs ripen quickly. Fruit bearing figs are heavily laden; a single tree may produce up to 1,000,000 fruits with a diameter of 1-2.5 cm. The fruit of ''F. citrifolia'' tends to have a purgative effect on the digestive systems of many animals; ripe fruits are eaten and seeds are spread widely through dung.

The invertebrates within ''F. citrifolia'' syconia in southern Florida include a pollinating wasp, ''P. assuetus'', up to eight or more species of non-pollinating wasps, a plant-parasitic nematode transported by the pollinator, a parasitic nematode attacking the pollinating wasp, mites, a midge, and a predatory rove beetle whose adults and larvae eat fig wasps. Nematodes: ''Schistonchus laevigatus'' is a plant-parasitic nematode associated with the pollinator ''Pegoscapus assuetus'' and syconia of ''F. citrifolia''. ''Parasitodiplogaster laevigata'' is a parasite of the pollinator ''Pegoscapus assuetus''. Mites: belonging to the family Tarsonemidae have been recognized in the syconia of ''F. aurea'' and ''F. citrifolia'', but they have not been identified even to genus, and their behavior is undescribed. Midges: ''Ficiomyia perarticulata'' oviposits in the walls of syconia of ''F. citrifolia'', and the developing larvae induce the plant to form galls there. Rove beetles: ''Charoxus spinifer'' is a rove beetle whose adults enter late-stage syconia of ''F. aurea'' and ''F. citrifolia''. Adults eat fig wasps; larvae develop within the syconia and prey on fig wasps, then pupate in the ground.

Evolution

One theory is that the Portuguese name for ''F. citrifolia'', "Os Barbados", gave Barbados its name. It appears on the coat of arms of Barbados, and the removal of one specimen, over 100 years old, was enough to draw attention.