Ficus ingens
An African and southern Arabian fig of rock faces, outcrops and dry riverbanks, famous for its bright red-bronze new leaves. It roots into cracks and straddles boulders, staying a shrub on exposed ridges but reaching about 15 m in warm lowlands. It wants full sun, a gritty free-draining mix and a dry, cooler winter in which it may drop its leaves; it is popular for bonsai.
Where it grows wild
Rock faces and outcrops, rocky slopes, and the edges of rivers and dry watercourses (wadis) in savanna and dry woodland. Roots squeeze into rock cracks and often split them; in South Africa it often clings to sunny, north-facing rock faces.
Lowveld to highveld. Recorded elevations run from 310 to 2,430 m with a median of 684 m (20 records); the main climate sites near Pretoria are at about 1,300 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 3.0 licence, unmodified.