Species library › Ficus › Ficus capreifolia
Other Partly documented

Ficus capreifolia

river sandpaper fig

Ficus capreifolia, the river sandpaper fig, is a sprawling shrub or small tree of tropical and subtropical African savanna, growing along rivers, in floodplains and around pans rather than in rainforest. It has rough, sandpapery elongated leaves, pale smooth bark and small yellow-green pear-shaped figs in the leaf axils. It needs full sun, heat and generous water in the growing season, and is tolerant of periodic flooding.

Ficus capreifolia
Photo: JMK, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Dry airBand in Plantistry
Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

A riparian fig of savanna country: river fringes, sandy riverbeds, floodplains and seasonal pans, where it forms thickets and tolerates both inundation and a long dry season. Wikipedia notes it avoids rainforest.

Lowland to mid elevations of the savanna belt; records seen carry no altitude, and an estimate of roughly sea level to about 1,500 m is inferred from localities such as the Zambezi valley, Lusaka and the KwaZulu-Natal lowveld.

West AfricaWest-Central Tropical AfricaNortheast Tropical AfricaEast Tropical AfricaSouth Tropical AfricaSouthern Africa

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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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 3.0 licence, unmodified.