Ficus spp

[mtdavis254817]

I was reading a book on aldabras and it stated that in the wild they will sit under ficus spp trees and eat on fallen leaves during the hot hours. This consisted of 20% of their diet. The only ficus spp I could get any information off Google were fig trees. Does anyone else know what kind of ficus tree that is safe for tortoises or that the book is referring to?

 

[wellington]

I think you can usually find them at Home Depot, for a house plant/tree. Not sure if this sight will help you or not. http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/ficus.html
Did it say anything about the ficus having any kind of edible or inedible fruit? There is a ficus listed with inedible fruit in the site above. Let us know what you find out. Good luck

 

[Yvonne G]

I think the two types of ficus you would find in the house plant department are ficus benjamina (weeping fig) and fiddle leaf fig. Neither of these are the ones found on the islands.

According to what I could find on the 'net, there are five kinds of ficus tree on Mauritius. Nice read:

http://islandbiodiversity.com/Phelsuma 14-8.pdf

I have two young, regular fig trees planted in my Aldabran pen. So far the two tortoises have shown no interest in eating the trees.

 

[wellington]

But Yvonne, do they eat the fallen leaves? Is what was said they were known to eat, that they are asking about.

 

[Yvonne G]

Yes, they eat the fallen leaves of the type of fig trees that grow on Mauritius. I did a Google shopping search for the first tree listed in that article and there were no results. I don't know if you can buy those type of fig trees online. I was going to write them down and go to a plant nursery to see if they can be ordered.

 

[mtdavis254817]

Hey Yvonne I found a black mission fig from Hawaii. Do you think that is similar

 

[Yvonne G]

No. Black Mission is a regular fig like what we use here to make cookies, etc. The type of fig on the Islands is a smaller-leaf tree and the figs grow in round shapes in clusters. But any of the fig trees like that would be edible. Copy the name of one of those trees in the article then do a Google image search. You'll see it's a slightly different-looking tree from the fig trees we know and love.

These are the ficus trees listed in the article:

F. rubra F. rubra Vahl (This is the one we buy as a house plant called the rubber tree)
F. refl exa F. refl exa Thunb (A picture link to this tree - http://arbres-reunion.cirad.fr/especes/moraceae/ficus_reflexa_thunb )
F. mauritiana - (this one has regular-looking fruit http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figuier_de_Maurice )
F. Laterifolia - (This one has little balls of fruit http://www.plantaphile.com/1982_ficus_laterifolia.html )