Ficus rubiginosa
The Port Jackson or rusty fig grows along eastern Australia from Cape York to Bega, most often clinging to sandstone and other rocky outcrops on dry hills, but also on rainforest margins and in gullies. It starts as a lithophyte or hemiepiphyte and becomes a spreading tree. Tough, sun-loving and drought-tolerant, it is a popular beginner bonsai and bright-window houseplant that likes a cooler, drier winter.
Where it grows wild
Scattered in rocky sites on dry hills in open forest, and less often in dry, littoral or subtropical rainforest, gullies, riverbanks and vine thickets. It often roots into cracks in sandstone, quartzite or basalt, or begins as a hemiepiphyte on another tree, in well-drained, nutrient-poor soils.
Around Sydney it grows from sea level to about 1000 m. The 27 wild records with elevation span 1–674 m with a median of 40 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.