鸡嗉子榕 ji su zi rong

Covellia cunia (Buchanan-Hamilton ex Roxburgh) Miquel; Ficus cunia Buchanan-Hamilton ex Roxburgh.

Trees, 3-10 m tall, d.b.h. 15-25 cm, crown flat, spreading and umbrellalike. Bark gray, smooth. Branchlets white or brown pubescent. Stipules red, lanceolate, 2-3.5 cm, membranous, subglabrous. Leaves distichous; petiole thick, 5-10 mm, densely covered with stiff hairs; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate, strongly asymmetric, 18-28 × 9-11 cm, papery, abaxially densely covered with stiff short hairs and small yellowish brown convex spots, adaxially coarse with stiff hairs on veins, base obliquely cordate on one side and auriculate on other side, margin with small teeth or entire, apex acuminate; basal lateral veins 3 or 4 on auriculate side of leaf blade, and extending into auriculate base, secondary veins 10-14 on each side of midvein. Figs on pendulous, eventually prostrate, leafless branchlets, ± underground at maturity, solitary, reddish purple when mature, globose, 1-1.5 cm in diam., stiffly hairy; peduncle 5-10 mm; involucral bracts pubescent; lateral bracts present. Male flowers: near apical pore; calyx lobes 3, red, oblanceolate, longer than stamens; stamens (1 or)2; filaments short; anthers white. Gall flowers: calyx lobes 4 or 5, linear-lanceolate; style lateral, short. Female flowers: basal bracteole 1; calyx lobes 4 or 5; ovary ovoid-ellipsoid; style lateral, long; stigma cylindric, shallowly 2-lobed. Achenes broadly ovoid, apically slightly concave on one side, with ± small tubercles. Fl. May-Oct.

Forest margins, valleys, along trails; 600-1900(-2800) m. Guangxi, Guizhou, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, C India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam].

This species is used as a street or shade tree. Berg (in litt.) believes that some material from Xishuangbanna in S Yunnan might be Ficus koutumensis Corner (Gard. Bull. Singapore 17: 449. 1960), which is most closely related to F. semicordata and F. prostrata. Berg also suggests that this, and the following species, F. prostrata, with their geocarpic figs, might be better placed in F. subgen. Sycomorus.