page_title: Ficus macrophylla
section_title: Reproduction and life span
hierarchical_section_title: Ficus macrophylla / Ecology / Reproduction and life span
caption_attribution_description: English: adult female Pleistodontes froggatti
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: Figs have an obligate mutualism with fig wasps (Agaonidae); figs are pollinated only by fig wasps, and fig wasps can reproduce only in fig flowers. Generally, each fig species depends on a single species of wasp for pollination. The wasps are similarly dependent on their fig species to reproduce. The mainland and Lord Howe populations of the Moreton Bay fig are both pollinated by Pleistodontes froggatti.
  As is the case with all figs, the fruit is actually an inverted inflorescence known as a syconium, with tiny flowers arising from the inner surface. Ficus macrophylla is monoecious—both male and female flowers are found on the same plant, and, in fact, in the same fruit, although they mature at different times. Female wasps enter the syconium and lay eggs in the female flowers as they mature. These eggs later hatch and the progeny mate. The females of the new generation collect pollen from the male flowers, which have matured by this point, and leave to visit other syconia and repeat the process. A field study in Brisbane found that F. macrophylla trees often bore both male and female syconia at the same time—which could be beneficial for reproduction in isolated populations such as those on islands. The same study found that male phase syconia development persisted through the winter, showing that its wasp pollinator tolerated cooler weather than those of more tropical fig species. F. macrophylla itself can endure cooler climates than other fig species. Moreton Bay fig trees live for over 100 years in the wild.
caption: Pleistodontes froggatti, the fig wasp that pollinates the Moreton Bay fig
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