page_title: Ficus macrophylla
section_title: Potentially invasive species
hierarchical_section_title: Ficus macrophylla / Ecology / Potentially invasive species
caption_attribution_description: An increasingly common sight in northern New Zealand. A young plant of the Australian banyan-type fig Ficus macrophylla, Moreton Bay Fig, has started life as an epiphyte on a Kōwhai tree (Sophora sp.), in Cornwall Park, Auckland, New Zealand. The seed from which this plant grew must have been deposited here by a bird that ate the fruit from one of the very large Moreton Bay Figs that grow nearby in this park. Ficus macrophylla is commonly cultivated in northern New Zealand. It has now acquired its pollinating wasp (Pleistodontes froggatti), apparently by long-distance dispersal. The size and vigour of this fig and its lack of natural enemies (notably an immunity to possum browsing) indicate that it may be able to invade forest and other native plant communities. The Moreton Bay Fig has been found growing on both native and introduced trees in Auckland.
context_page_description: Ficus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the family Moraceae native to eastern Australia, from the Wide Bay–Burnett region in the north to the Illawarra in New South Wales, as well as Lord Howe Island. Its common name is derived from Moreton Bay in Queensland, Australia. It is best known for its imposing buttress roots. As Ficus macrophylla is a strangler fig, seed germination usually takes place in the canopy of a host tree and the seedling lives as an epiphyte until its roots establish contact with the ground. It then enlarges and strangles its host, eventually becoming a freestanding tree by itself. Individuals may reach 60 m in height. The large leathery, dark green leaves are 15–30 cm long.
  The fruit is small, round and greenish, ripening and turning purple at any time of year; it is known as a syconium, an inverted inflorescence with the flowers lining an internal cavity. Like all figs, it has an obligate mutualism with fig wasps; figs are pollinated only by fig wasps, and fig wasps can reproduce only in fig flowers.
context_section_description: Ficus macrophylla is commonly cultivated in Hawaii and in northern New Zealand. In both places, it has now naturalised, having acquired its pollinating wasp (Pleistodontes froggatti). In Hawaii the wasp was deliberately introduced in 1921, and in New Zealand it was first recorded in 1993, having apparently arrived by long-distance dispersal from Australia. The arrival of the wasp led to prolific production of fruits containing many small seeds adapted for dispersal by birds. The Moreton Bay fig has been found growing on both native and introduced trees in New Zealand and in Hawaii. The size and vigour of this fig in New Zealand, and its lack of natural enemies, as well as its immunity to possum browsing, indicate that it may be able to invade forest and other native plant communities. Occasional garden escapees have been recorded in Turkey.
caption: A young Moreton Bay fig starts life as an epiphyte in an Auckland, New Zealand park
exif: {}