Ficus arnottiana
A deciduous fig of the Indian subcontinent that grows on cliffs, boulders and rock fissures in dry deciduous forest, becoming a tree of up to 20 m where it has soil. It is a full-sun plant adapted to a long hot dry season followed by the monsoon, and it drops its leaves in the dry months. In cultivation it is grown mainly as a bonsai or large container plant and wants strong light, sharp drainage and a drier, cooler winter.
Where it grows wild
It grows on cliffs, large boulders, rocky slopes and in rock crevices in dry deciduous forest, and also near riverbanks. Its roots wedge into cracks, so plants on rock stay stunted while those in deeper soil grow into spreading trees with smooth grey-white bark. Most records cluster along the Western Ghats and the Deccan plateau of Maharashtra and Karnataka, with others in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Sri Lanka and peninsular Thailand.
Few records carry an elevation. The coordinates fall mostly in the Western Ghats and on the Deccan plateau, which suggests roughly sea level to about 1,000 m.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, unmodified.