Ficus exasperata

Ficus exasperata

Know our Plant

Systematic Classication:

Division   : Angiospermae 
Class      : Dicotyledons
Order      : Rosales
Family     : Moraceae
Genus      : Ficus
Species    : exasperata

Common Name:

Sandpaper tree, Forest sandpaper fig, White fig, or Sandpaper leaf tree.

General Information:

Deciduous trees, up to 18 m tall.Bark pale, greenish, lenticellate.Young branchlets terete, with stout white scabrid hairs.Latex watery, profuse.Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipule in pairs, lateral, caducous and leaving scar; petiole 1-6 cm long, canaliculate, with stout white scabrid hairs; lamina 5.5-17 x 3-7.5 cm, broadly elliptic to obovate, apex abruptly acuminate, base rounded or acute-cuneate; margin denticulate or sinuate to crenate (rarely lobed), scabrid on both surface, coriaceous; 3-nerved at base; midrib slightly raised above; secondary nerves 3-6 pairs, prominent; tertiary nerves broadly percurrent.Inflorescence syconia, axillary, solitary, scabrid; flowers unisexual; peduncle to 1.5 cm.Fruit and SeedSyconium, obovoid, up to 1.5 cm long, yellow or purple when ripe; achene oblong.

Economic Importance:

  • Sandpaper tree is widely used as a source of sandpaper and as a valuable medicinal plant.
  • The extracts from the tree used to treat as anti-ulcer, hypotensive, lipid-lowering, analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic activity.