Ficus goolerea Roxb.
A small to large, 10-20 (- 30) m tall, evergreen or occasionally deciduous tree. Trunk up to 3 m in circumference, with spreading brand with or without aerial roots, bark whitish to pinkish-brawn, smooth, young twigs with fine white pubescence, soon glabrous. Leaves with 2.6 (-7.5) cm long, grooved minutely hairy, brownish-scurfy petiole; lamina ovate-lanceolate to ± elliptic-lanceolate, (5-) 6-18 (- 20) cm long, (2.5-) 3-10 (-l.2) cm broad, 3 from broad to narrowly cuneate, ± oblique base, margin entire to ± used obtuse or subacute to occasionally ± acuminate at apex, glabrous on both sides; lateral nerves 4-7 (-8) pairs, bulging beneath, intercostals present; stipules triangular-ovate, 12-15 mm long, 4-5 mm wide, acute-acuminate, brown, sub-persistent; cystoliths present only on the lower side. Hypanthodia on 8-40 long peduncles, borne in large clusters from tubercles on the main trunk and main leafless branches (cauliflorous), subpyriform-globose, c.1.5-2.5 cm long and broad, green, subtended by 3, broadly triangular-ovate brownish brads, bracts, apical orifice ± sunken, closed by 5-6, pink-brown bracts without internal bristles. Male flowers: sessile, ostiolar in 23-whorls; 3(-4), united, lobes dentate-lacerate, red; stamens usually 2, pistillode present. Female flowers: sessile or subsessile. sepals as in male; ovary substipitate, with lateral, 2.3 long, glabrous style, stigma simple. Gall flowers pedicellate, dispersed among female. Figs depressed subglobose or pyriform, 2.54 cm in, diameter red, usually streaked. Seeds lenticular, c. 1 mm long.
Fl. & Fr. Per.: March-May & September-November.
Type: “Habitat in India”.
Distribution: Pakistan, India, Sri Lanaka, Bangle Dish, S. Chins, Burma, Thailand, Malayasia, Indonesia to N. Australia.
The mature fruits are astringent, stomachic and carminative. They are eaten by locals. The wood is often employed in making cart frames, ploughs, box, fittings, match boxes and cheap furniture. A decoction of the bark is used as a wash for wounds. The tree is planted for shade in gardens.