FAMILY OF THE WEEK : MORACEAE

[satish phadke]

FAMILY OF THE WEEK : MORACEAE
A family of 53 genera and 1400 species, mostly in tropical and subtropical regions.In India the family is represented by 15 genera and 150 species occurring mostly in tropical and sub tropical Himalayas and Assam.
Vegetative characters :
They are mostly trees or shrubs or rarely herbs as in Dorstenia. Some species of Ficus climb on other trees with the help of aerial clasping roots.
Many species of Ficus produce aerial roots which form great pillars supporting the branches. The tree attains immense size.
The leaves are alternate, rarely opposite, simple, peni-or palminerved and stipulate. The stipules are caducous and leave a scar when they fall off. they are small and lateral or intra petiolar.
Ficus krishnae has a curious cup shaped leaves.
Inflorescences and flowers :
The small flowers are basically arranged in cym0ose inflorescences which form spikes,heads disks or hollow receptacles. In Morus the male flowers are arranged in Catkins and the female in pseudo spikes. In Artocarpus the male flowers are arranged in pseudo catkins and the female in pseudo heads. In ficus a very large number of flowers are born on the inner side of a hollowed out globose or pear shaped receptacle. It has a narrow apical orifice which is closed by a small overlapping bracts.There are three types of flowers male female and gall flowers the latter are sterile female flowers. The species of Ficus are monoecious or dioecious. In the former, all the three kinds of flowers are present in the same receptacle. In dioecious species the male and gall flowers are are born in the receptacle of one plant and the female flowers in the receptacles on the other plant.
Many species of Ficus are cauliflorus, bearing flowers on old parts of trunk, while several others are geocarpic fruiting on underground stolons which arise from the baes of the trunk.
The flowers are unisexual actinomorphic and hypogynous to epigynous.
The perianth consists of usually four persistent, free or more or less united tepals which are valvate or imbricate in bud. The stamens are usually four. Sometimes they are only one or two stamens as in Ficus and Artocarpus.The anthers are versatile, dithecous and opening lengthwise.
In the female flowers the gynoecium consists of basically two syncarpous carpels. The ovary is superior(Morus) or inferior(Dorstenia). unilocular with a solitary more or less curved ovule pendulous from the apex. The styles are mostly two and filiform.
Fruits and Seeds :
The fruit is an Achene(Ficus) or a drupe(Morus). The seeds are non endospermic or endospermic and generally with a curved embryo.
Pollination and seed dispersal :
The flowers of Morus and some genera are pollinated by wind. Ficus shows an extraordinary mode of pollination by a special gall wasp.
Examples:
Morus alba,nigra,macroura,laevigata,serrata Ficus largest genus with 800 species Ficus benghalensis L. Banyan,Wad Ficus religiosa (Peepal) Ficusramosa synFicus glomerulata(Gular) Ficus infectoria(Pilkhan)
Ficus virens Ficus krishnae Ficus elastca(Indian rubber tree)
Ficus carica(Fig Anjir)
Artocarpus altilis
Artocarpus incisa
Artocarpus lakoocha
Broussonetia papyrifera(Paper mulberry)

[Nudrat]

Ficus dont climb on other trees. On the contrary they germinate in the
crouches of the branches and send down roots towards the ground. Till
the roots establish contact with the ground, the growth of aerial
portion is stunted. Once the roots reach ground and establish contact
the aerial portion starts growing. Slowly the Ficus squeezes the
support to death by encircling it and takes its place. This process is
however very slow and takes 100-500 years depending on the species of
Ficus. These ficus are known as strangler ficus and are place in the
group hemiepiphytes by some ecologist. Not all ficus are stranglers.
Out of approximately 800 sps worldwide about 300 hundred are
stanglers.

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>  Morus alba2.jpg
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[satish phadke]

Hi Nudrat
First of all I am not a botanist.Field botany is my hobby and to know about plants I have started reading about families as a medium of classification.Whatever I write here is sourced from some books or sites.After looking at your post I searched on google about climbing ficus and 150000 results appeared.So there is definitely something like climbing ficus or climbing fig(Ficus pumila)
What you are talking is about strangler ficus which I think is different.
Satish

[Barry Stock]

I would say that it does not take that long with the stranglers, at
least the ones I am familiar with - our local Ficus aurea and F.
citrifolia. I moved into a house built in the year 1952 in 1998. In
the front garden, and the front garden of the house next door, were
identical scenes: fully-engulfed trunks of deceased, moderate-sized
Melaleuca quiquenervia surrounded by full-size (large) Ficus aurea. I
have watched them climb down from the top of Phoenix canariensis, and
it happens more rapidly than you might imagine. I would say it takes
from 20-50 years for the process to occur, not more than 100.

Barry Stock
Hollywood, Florida, USA

[Nudrat Sayed]

Firstly my post was not meant to show anyone down. I just wanted to add to the information put up.  Ficus pumila is usually grown in gardens and i havent seen it in forests yet. Ficus in tropical forest take almost the number of years i have mentioned. I speak with reference to books that i have read on tropical ecology.

--
Regards
Dr. Sayed Nudrat Zawar
Senior Conservation Officer
Conservation Action Trust Mumbai