Ficus religiosa L., Moraceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  High risk, score: 7 (Go to the risk assessment)

Common name(s): [more details]

Chinese: pu ti shu

English: bo tree, peepul tree, sacred fig

French: arbre de Dieu, figuier de pagodes

Hindi: bodh tree, pipal tree

Spanish: higuera de agua

Habit:  tree

Description:  "Trees, 15-25 m tall, d.b.h. 30-50 cm, epiphytic when young, crown wide when mature. Bark gray, smooth or longitudinally ± fissured. Branchlets grayish brown, sparsely pubescent when young. Stipules ovate, small, apex acute. Petiole slender, as long as or longer than leaf blade, articulate; leaf blade triangular-ovate, 9-17 x 8-12 cm, leathery, abaxially green, adaxially dark green and shiny, base broadly cuneate to ± cordate, margin entire or undulate, apex acute to caudate with a 2-5 cm cauda; basal lateral veins 2, secondary veins 5-7 on each side of midvein. Figs axillary on leafy branchlets, paired or solitary, red when mature, globose to depressed globose, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, smooth; peduncle 4-9 mm; involucral bracts ovate. Male, gall, and female flowers within same fig. Male flowers: few, near apical pore, sessile; calyx 2- or 3-lobed, margin revolute; stamen 1; filament short. Gall flowers: pedicellate; calyx 3- or 4-lobed; ovary globose, smooth; style short; stigma enlarged, 2-lobed. Female flowers: sessile; calyx 4-lobed, broadly lanceolate; ovary globose, smooth; style thin; stigma narrow"  (Flora of China online).

Habitat/ecology:  (no habitat/ecology info known by PIER)

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Pakistan to Vietnam, cultivated elsewhere (GRIN).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US) Northern Mariana Islands	Tinian Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1979) (p. 55)
Fiji Fiji Islands	Viti Levu Island	introduced cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1981) (p. 174) Voucher cited: DA 13271
Guam Guam Island	Guam Island	introduced	Raulerson, L. (2006) (p. 26)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Hawai‘i (Big) Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Parker, James L./Parsons, Bobby (2012) (p. 70) Voucher cited: J. Parker & R. Parsons BIED129 (BISH)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Kaua‘i Island		Bishop Museum (U.S.A. Hawaii. Honolulu.) (1988) (voucher ID: BISH 531687) Taxon name on voucher: Ficus religiosa L.
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	O‘ahu Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Frohlich, Danielle/Lau, Alex (2008) (pp. 7-8) Voucher cited: A. Lau & D. Frohlich 2007101901 (BISH)
New Caledonia New Caledonia Archipelago	Île Grande Terre	introduced cultivated	MacKee, H. S. (1994) (p. 102) Voucher cited: MacKee 14638

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
China China	China (People's Republic of)	introduced cultivated	Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong (2011)
China China	Hong Kong	introduced cultivated	Wu, Te-lin (2001) (p. 63) Cultivated.
Singapore Singapore	Singapore (Republic of)	introduced invasive	Chong, Kwek Yan/Tan, Hugh T. W./Corlett, Richard T. (2009) (p. 41) Naturalised
Thailand Thailand	Thailand (Kingdom of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Vietnam Vietnam	Vietnam (Socialist Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)

Also reported from
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
United States (continental except west coast) United States (other states)	USA (Florida)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2011)

Comments:  Planting of this species is prohibited in Miami-Dade County, Florida (U.S.) (Miami-Dade County Dept. of Planning and Zoning, 2010).

Additional information:
Report from Plants of Hawaii (PDF format).
Information sheet from the Agroforestry Database (PDF format).

Additional online information about Ficus religiosa is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Ficus religiosa as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Ficus religiosa may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Bishop Museum (U.S.A. Hawaii. Honolulu.). 1988. Voucher specimen #BISH531687(Flynn, T. 2991).

Chong, Kwek Yan/Tan, Hugh T. W./Corlett, Richard T. 2009. A checklist of the total vascular plant flora of Singapore: native, naturalised and cultivated species. Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore. 273 pp.

Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce. 1979. A geographical checklist of the Micronesian dicotyledonae. Micronesica 15:1-295.

Frohlich, Danielle/Lau, Alex. 2008. New plant records from O‘ahu for 2007. In: Evenhuis, Neal L. and Eldredge, Lucias G., eds. Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey for 2007. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 100:3-12.

MacKee, H. S. 1994. Catalogue des plantes introduites et cultivées en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 164 p.

Miami-Dade County Dept. of Planning and Zoning. 2010. The landscape manual. Draft ninth edition, August 2010. 249 pp.

Parker, James L./Parsons, Bobby. 2012. New plant records from the Big Island for 2010-2011. In: Evenhuis, Neal L. and Eldredge, Lucius G., eds. Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey for 2011. Part II: Plants. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers. 113:65-74.

Raulerson, L. 2006. Checklist of Plants of the Mariana Islands. University of Guam Herbarium Contribution 37:1-69. .

Smith, Albert C. 1981. Flora Vitiensis nova: a new flora of Fiji. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii. Volume 2. 810 pp.

U. S. Government. 2011. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) (on-line resource).

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2011. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. 2011. The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Wu, Te-lin. 2001. Check List of Hong Kong Plants. Hong Kong Herbarium and the South China Institute of Botany. Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department Bulletin 1 (revised). 384 pp.

Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong. 2011. Flora of China (online resource).