{{Short description|Species of fig}} {{Speciesbox |name = Roxburgh fig |image = Ficus auriculata.jpg |image_caption = |status = LC |status_system = IUCN3.1 |status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 19 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=Shao, Q. |author2=Zhao, L. |author3=Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). |author4=IUCN SSC Global Tree Specialist Group |date=2019 |title=''Ficus auriculata'' |volume=2019 |article-number=e.T147637124A147637126 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-2.RLTS.T147637124A147637126.en |access-date=19 November 2021}}</ref> |parent = Ficus subg. Sycomorus |taxon = Ficus auriculata |authority = Lour. |synonyms = {{species list |hidden = yes |Tremotis cordata |Raf. |Covellia macrophylla |Miq. |Ficus beipeiensis |S.S.Chang |Ficus hainanensis |Merr. & Chun |Ficus hamiltoniana |Wall. |Ficus imperialis |G.W.Johnson & R.Hogg |Ficus macrocarpa |H.Lév. & Vaniot |Ficus macrocarpa |H.Lév. & Vaniot |Ficus macrophylla |Roxb. & Buch.-Ham. ex Sm. |Ficus oligodon |Miq. |Ficus pomifera |Wall. ex King |Ficus regia |Miq. |Ficus rotundifolia |Roxb. |Ficus roxburghii |Wall. ex Steud. |Ficus sclerocarpa |Griff. |Ficus scleroptera |Griff.}} |synonyms_ref = <ref name=POWO>{{cite web |title=''Ficus auriculata'' Lour. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:852452-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=25 October 2023 |language=en}}</ref> }}
'''''Ficus auriculata''''' is a species of flowering plant in the family ''Moraceae''.<ref name=POWO/><ref name=COL>{{cite web |url= https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/taxon/6HW93 |title= Ficus auriculata Lour. |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=n.d. |website=Catalogue of Life |publisher=Species 2000 |access-date=July 14, 2025}}</ref> This fig tree is sometimes referred to by the common names '''Roxburgh fig''' and '''Elephant ear tree''' and is noted for its big and round leaves and edible fruit. It is native to subtropical and tropical Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, South-Central and Southeast China, East and West Himalaya, Hainan, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam.<ref name=POWO/>
==Description== This plant is a small tree of {{cvt|5|–|10|m|ft}} high with numerous bristle-covered branches. The leaves are alternate, big and round, and are up to {{cvt|44|cm|in}} long and {{cvt|45|cm|in}} wide, with cordate or rounded base, acute apex, and 5–7 main veins from the leaf base. Its petioles are up to {{cvt|15|cm|in|0}} long, and it has stipules of about {{cvt|2.5|cm|in|0}} long. The plant has oblate syconium that are up to {{cvt|4|cm|in}} wide, covered with yellow pubescence, and emerge from the trunk or old branches of the tree.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=29. ''Ficus auriculata'' |website=Flora of China |url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200006348}}</ref><ref name="yoshitaka">{{cite book |first1=Yoshitaka |last1=Tanaka |first2=Nguyen |last2=Van Ke |date=2007 |title=Edible Wild Plants of Vietnam: The Bountiful Garden |location=Thailand |publisher=Orchid Press |isbn=978-974-524-089-6 |page=96}}</ref> ''Ficus auriculata'' is dioecious, with male and female flowers produced on separate individuals.<ref>{{cite journal| doi=10.1016/j.foreco.2011.10.022 | title=The phenology of dioecious ''Ficus'' spp. Tree species and its importance for forest restoration projects | year=2012 | last1=Kuaraksa | first1=Cherdsak | last2=Elliott | first2=Stephen | last3=Hossaert-Mckey | first3=Martine | journal=Forest Ecology and Management | volume=265 | pages=82–93 }}</ref> On ripening, the fruits turn from light yellow to purple. The fruit is a fleshy receptacle. The fruits form as large clusters on the trunk, on branches and also on the roots.<ref name="NCSU"/>
Fruit extracts contain many phenolic compounds (Gaire et al. 2011).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gaire |first1=B.P. |last2=Lamichhane |first2=R. |last3=Sunar |first3=C.B. |last4=Shilpakar |first4=A. |last5=Neupane |first5=S. |last6=Panta |first6=S. |title=Phytochemical screening and analysis of antibacterial and antioxidant activity of ''Ficus auriculata'' (Lour.) stem bark. |journal=Pharmacognosy Journal |date=2011 |volume=3 |issue=21 |pages=49–55.}}</ref>
==Taxonomy== It was first published by Portuguese Botanist João de Loureiro (1717–1791), in Fl. Cochinch. on page 666 in 1790.<ref name=POWO/>
It is commonly known as the ''Roxburgh fig'',<ref name=PLANTS>{{PLANTS |symbol=FIAU3 |taxon=''Ficus auriculata'' |access-date=9 October 2022}}</ref> which is named after botanist William Roxburgh, who was appointed Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens by the East India Company in 1793. Experiments carried out on fruiting ''Ficus auriculata'' trees at the Calcutta Botanic Gardens by the then Superintendent George King and his Botanic Garden colleagues described in King in 1897 which was the first detailed explanation of how the dioecious figs were pollinated by fig wasps which bred in the figs of male trees and then flew to female fig trees to pollinate the female figs.<ref>{{cite book |last1=King |first1=George |title=The species of Ficus of the Indo-Malayan and Chinese countries |date=1888 |publisher=Bengal secretariat press |location=Calcutta |pages=67–185}}</ref> It is also known as ''Elephant Ear Fig Tree'', ''Elephant Ear Tree'' and ''Giant Indian Fig'', due to the leaves, as ''auricle'' is the Latin word for ear, referring to the two 'ears' at the base of heart shaped leaf.<ref name="NCSU">{{cite web |title=''Ficus auriculata'' (Elephant Ear Fig Tree, Elephant Ear Tree, Giant Indian Fig, Roxburgh fig) {{!}} North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox |url=https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ficus-auriculata/ |website=plants.ces.ncsu.edu |publisher=North Carolina State University |access-date=25 October 2023}}</ref>
==Distribution== The native range of this species stretches from north-eastern Pakistan to southern China and the Malaysian peninsula. It is found in the countries (and regions) of Assam, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Bangladesh, Cambodia, southern China, Bhutan, Sikkim, Hainan, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam.<ref name=POWO/>
==Habitat== It grows in forests in moist valleys,<ref name=":0" /> growing along stream banks.<ref name="NCSU"/>
==Ecology== ''Ceratosolen emarginatus'' is an insect that helps to pollinate this plant.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.insect.org.cn/EN/Y2012/V55/I11/1272 |author1=LI Zong-Bo |author2=YANG Pei |author3=PENG Yan-Qiong |author4=YANG Da-Rong |title=Distribution and ultramorphology of antennal sensilla in female ''Ceratosolen emarginatus'' Mayr (Hymenoptera: Agaonidae), a specific pollinator of ''Ficus auriculata'' |journal=Acta Entomologica Sinica |year=2012 |volume=55 |issue=11 |pages=1272–1281}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.figweb.org/Ficus/Subgenus_Sycomorus/Section_Sycomorus/Subsection_Neomorphe/Ficus_auriculata.htm |title=''Ficus auriculata'' Loureiro, 1790 |author1=van Noort, S. |author2=Rasplus, J.-Y. |year=2018 |website=Figweb |publisher=Iziko Museums of South Africa}}</ref>
==Uses== The fresh fruit of this plant is consumed as food, and has diuretic, laxative and digestive regulating properties.<ref name="yoshitaka" /> ''Ficus auriculata'' is used as fodder in Nepal. It is least resistant to fire, but likes good sunlight.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Ficus auriculata'' |website=ForestryNepal |url=http://www.forestrynepal.org/resources/trees/ficus-auriculata |access-date=2014-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222053848/http://www.forestrynepal.org/resources/trees/ficus-auriculata |archive-date=2014-02-22}}</ref>
The large leaves, often up to {{cvt|21|in|1}} long and {{cvt|12|in|1}} wide are used as plates.<ref name="NCSU"/>
==Plant problems== The tree is susceptible to scale. It also has minor issues with gall, mealy bugs, thrips, whitefly, and spider mite.<ref name="NCSU"/>
==Photo gallery== <gallery> File:Fig_Fruits,_അത്തിപ്പഴം.JPG|Fruit emerging from trunk and branches File:Fig_Leaves,_അത്തിയില.JPG|Leaf of elephant ear fig File:Ficus auriculata 04.jpg|Fruit File:Ficus auriculata leaf.jpg|Leaf File:Ficus auriculata fruit 2.jpg|Fruit File:Ficus auriculata seeds, by Omar Hoftun.jpg|Seeds </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Wikispecies-inline|Ficus auriculata}} *{{Commons category-inline}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q4959177}}
auriculata Category:Flora of the Indian subcontinent Category:Flora of Indo-China Category:Flora of Assam (region) Category:Flora of Bangladesh Category:Flora of Cambodia Category:Flora of China Category:Flora of East Himalaya Category:Flora of West Himalaya Category:Flora of Hainan Category:Flora of India Category:Flora of Laos Category:Flora of Malaysia Category:Flora of Myanmar Category:Flora of Nepal Category:Flora of Pakistan Category:Flora of Thailand Category:Flora of Tibet Category:Flora of Vietnam Category:Dioecious plants Category:Taxa named by João de Loureiro Category:Plants described in 1790