Ficus altissima

Common Name: false banyan

Family: Moraceae

Common Synonyms: none

USDA Hardiness Zone: 9b-11

Growth Habit: Tree

Origin: Indian to south China and Malaysia

FISC Category: 2

FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No

Introduction Date: 1913

IFAS Assessment:

• North: OK
• Central: OK
• South: INVASIVE

Description

"Evergreen, epiphytic, strangling shrub or tree to 25 m tall. Bark silvery and trunk often buttressed, with multiple trunks, and aerial roots. Leaves alternate, leathery, simple, glabrous, and glossy dark green to 20 cm, leaf tips rounded. Tiny flowers enclosed in the ""fig"", a specialized inflorescence. Fig is ovoid, glabrous, to 2 cm diameter, yellow to orange. "

Habitat

Tropical hammock, mangrove swamp, scrub, pine rockland

Comments

Often found growing as epiphytes. Similar to the native strangler fig (Ficus aurea) but has larger ovate (rather than elliptic in F. aurea) leaves.

Control Methods

• Manual: NA
• Chemical: Basal bark (10% Trichlopyr ester). [IFAS]
• Biological: NA

Control Notes

NA

References

Dave's Garden. 2014. PlantFiles: False Banyan, Ficus altissima. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/94277/. Accessed on June 20, 2014.

Langeland, K.A., H.M. Cherry, C.M. McCormick, K.C. Burks. 2008. Identification and Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas-Second Edition. IFAS Publication SP 257. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Langeland, K.A., J.A. Ferrell, B. Sellers, G.E. MacDonald, and R.K. Stocker. 2011. Integrated management of non-native plants in natural areas of Florida. EDIS publication SP 242. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.