Ficus benjamina

Ficus benjamina is a thornless, medium-sized and evergreen tree growing up to 15-20 m high.

The bark of Ficus benjamina is greyish or light-brown-coloured, smooth and lenticellate.

The leaves of Ficus benjamina grow alternately on the stem (spirally arranged).
The leaf is simple, bright green-coloured above and paler beneath. The leaf is coriaceous and glabrous on both sides (some minute hairs on the margins and on the midrib beneath).
The leaves have a 2 cm long petiole.
The leaf of Ficus benjamina is about 10 cm long and 6 cm wide. The shape of the blade is elliptic, the apex is acuminate, the base is cuneate or rounded and the margins are entire.
The venation of the leaf is reticulate with a prominent midrib.

The flowers of Ficus benjamina are enclosed within a fleshy receptacle referred to as the fig. What we think of as a fruit is an inflorescence, a flower-bearing structure called syconium (*).
The syconium of Ficus benjamina is monoecious, containing both female and male flowers and also gall flowers (hosts of pollinators).

(*) The syconium is an urn-shaped receptacle which contains between 50 to 7000 (depending on the species) highly simplified uniovulate flowers or florets on its inner surface. It is closed off from most organisms by the ostiole, formed by bracts.
Syconia can be monoecious or functionally dioecious : the former contain female flowers with variable style length and few male flowers, and produce seeds and pollen. The latter have male and female forms in different plants : seed figs contain female flowers with long styles and produce seeds; gall figs contain female flowers with short styles and male flowers and produce pollen.
Once pollinated, the florets develop into achenes or drupes, in which the seeds are enclosed by a layer of endocarp. From this perspective, the fig is an enclosure with tens to thousands of fruits within it. (Galil, J., Fig biology, 1977)

The fig, what we referred to as a fruit, is in fact a fleshy enclosure, an infructescence that contains hundreds of tiny fruits (achenes).

The fruits of Ficus benjamina are ovate achenes, brownish when ripe and about 1.5-2 mm long.

The figs are sessile, in pairs at the axil of the leaves.
They are globose, 2-2.5 cm across and they are orange-coloured when ripe.

The seeds of Ficus benjamina are enclosed into a tiny achene.

The inner bark of Ficus benjamina is a source of fibre.

A latex can be obtained from all parts of the plant (30% of caoutchouc).

The wood of Ficus benjamina is of low quality but is used as timber for temporary constructions.

Source : Useful Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern, 2014 (http://tropical.theferns.info)