Ficus lutea
A large semi-deciduous fig of African riverine forest, woodland and coastal forest, with huge leathery leaves up to about 40 cm long clustered at the branch tips. It often starts life as an epiphyte whose aerial roots reach the ground and eventually strangle the host. Young plants make bold, fast-growing container specimens that want warmth, strong light and ample water in summer.
Where it grows wild
Riverine and swamp forest, evergreen and coastal forest, secondary forest and wooded savanna, from sea level upward. It often germinates in the crown of another tree and grows as a hemiepiphytic strangler, but also establishes directly on rocky or sandy ground; open-grown trees have short buttressed trunks and wide crowns.
99 GBIF records carry an elevation: -14 to 1976 m, median 120 m. Most records are coastal lowland in KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar and the Seychelles.
🔒 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.