Rocky outcrops and mountaintops in the southwest corner of Kruger are home to many Ficus glumosas. The species also occurs in the Punda Maria and Makuleke ecozones.

Trees grow to about 10 metres, typically low branching and seldom with a straight trunk.

Each tree's specific terrain and soil depth affects the density of its canopy, some being sparse, as in the image upper left, and some dense.

Convoluted for purpose!

Ficus glumosa is often a rock-splitter, with roots probing and exploring, penetrating crevices and searching for moisture. Fire is seldom a threat in these rocky terrains.

Bark is smooth, with a cream to yellow-green colour. As the tree ages, bark becomes more uneven, sometimes flaking.

Weight-lifter!

Early in its life, this tree's roots grew around the rocks. As the tree matured and the trunk expanded, it lifted these rocks well clear of the ground.

Leaves are simple, alternate and broadly ovate to elliptic with entire margins. The apex is bluntly rounded, and the base mildly cordate, as in the image above.

Size varies widely, with an average leaf blade being about 8 by 6 cm. The leaf width is more than two thirds the leaf length.

Leaves are densely hairy when young, with hairiness on the upper surface becoming more sparse with age.

Venation is strongly raised on the underside of the leaf, above left.

Leaf surfaces above and below is similar, as in the image above right.

Dense hairiness!

The image above shows clearly the hairiness of stem, petioles, leaves and fruit. Hairy Rock Fig is, indeed, an appropriate name.

These figs, or syconiums, each contain both male and female flowers, so the species is monoecious. Female pollinating wasps (Elisabethiella glumosae) enter, with great difficulty, through the tiny ostiole passages at the top of the figs. Once inside, they both lay eggs and pollinate female fig flowers,

To learn about the reproductive processes of both wasp and fig tree, go to the Learning Pod titled "Figs, Wasps and Reproduction".

Ficus glumosa figs are stalkless, and grow singly or in small clusters in leaf axils, at ends of branches or on older wood. Size ranges from about 1 to 1.5 cm, and figs are approximately round. The ostiole may be slightly raised, or not raised at all. Figs ripen from green to a yellow-orange colour.

Standing sentinel at dawn atop a mountain in south-west Kruger, this Ficus glumosa bears sparse new foliage. This image is in early September, and within a month, the tree will have a full canopy of leaves.

Note the growth form, with trunk curving and low-branching.

Young trees show the growth forms common in mature trees.

They are tolerant of mountainous terrain, sometimes with shallow soils. Trunks tend to bend, branching is low down. Spreading canopies are dense in the summer season.

A new tree germinates on rock!

Note how the baby roots are spreading over the surface, probing, searching for life-giving moisture.

. . . and why is this species called 'glumosa'?

Glumes are sterile bracts, or leaf-like structures, that act as protective layers. The term may apply to stipules that protect the growing tips of some species.

In Ficus glumosa, for example, large, tawny stipules protect the growing tip of the stem. They persist, and are referred to as glumes.

The species name 'glumosa' comes from 'bearing glumes'.

A grand survivor!