Japanese name: イヌビワ（犬枇杷） Scientific name:Ficus erecta var. erecta
[Overview]
A deciduous shrub 3–5 m tall, found in lowland woods.
A white milky sap comes out when the leaves or stems are damaged.
Young branches are rarely covered with white hairs.
The leaves are simple and alternate, ovate-elliptic, 8–20 cm long and 3.5–8 cm wide, and hairless on both sides.
The leaf margin is entire.
The petiole is 2–5 cm long.
It is dioecious.
One spherical syconium (fig-type flask-shaped flower receptacle), 0.8–1 cm across, is borne in each leaf axil.
The flowers grow on the inside of the syconium, so the fruit ripens with no flowers visible from the outside.
After flowering, the syconium becomes a fruiting syconium (the fruit).
The fruiting syconium is spherical, 2 cm across, and ripens to blackish purple.
The fruiting syconia of female inflorescences are edible.
[Uses]
The fruit and the white latex are used medicinally.
[Cultivation]
Propagate by cuttings or layering.
It prefers fertile soil with good sun and good drainage.
Immediately after planting, water thoroughly when the soil dries; for established plants, rainfall is sufficient unless summer brings a long spell of sunny weather and severe dryness.
Apply organic fertilizer around the plant as fertilizer in winter.
There are no particular pests or diseases.
