ficus timlada, a big tasty "new" himalayan fig

epiphyte · Nov 24, 2024

part 2a of 4

here’s a list of 28 characteristics that i used to compare ficus auriculata, ficus timlada, and ficus racemosa….

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these characteristics aren’t equally important. if you share this list of characteristics with 100 different taxonomists and ask them to rank them by importance, you’re going to get 100 different answers... about whether timlada is a “good” species or merely a subspecies of auriculata. we can’t get anywhere by ignoring the fundamental fact that ranking is an entirely subjective endeavor. this means that the most beneficial ranking is entirely dependent on giving everyone in the world the opportunity to use their own money to help rank the characteristics. then and only then will everyone begin to fully appreciate the true beauty of the planet’s natural order.

comparison pics…

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1st pic is one of my several attempts to graft auriculata onto carica. all the auriculata scions died shortly after starting to grow. others have tried grafting carica onto auriculata with similar results. are carica and timlada graft compatible? either way, it wouldn’t be a minor detail, for myself and many others. the 3rd pic is of ficus carica successfully grafted onto ficus racemosa.

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ficus auriculata doesn’t grow so easy from cuttings, unlike racemosa. what about timlada? how much weight should be given to this characteristic? personally i think it’s a very important characteristic because the propagation and proliferation of ficus, and all other plants, is something seriously significant.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

with ficus carica we see considerable variation in flesh color. with auriculata and racemosa there’s some variation in flesh color, mainly from white to red. but i didn’t notice any variation in flesh color with timlada. which happens more often, a species develops a new trait entirely on its own through mutation, or a species obtains a new trait from a different species? for example, homo sapiens didn’t develop body hair through mutation. we obtained this trait from neanderthals in southern europe.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

the color of the timlada figs is consistently closer to racemosa. in terms of fig size, timlada is typically between racemosa and auriculata. and the shape of timlada is probably closest to carica.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

the height and width of auriculata is around the same. and it grows fairly densely. racemosa is typically much taller, less wide and more open. timlada is somewhere between auriculata and racemosa. one confounding factor is that timlada is often used for leaf fodder. many trees have limbs with obvious signs of being severely chopped. here’s a girl in nepal chopping timlada and here’s a guy in uttarakhand chopping timlada. so it probably isn’t a coincidence that many timlada trees look like big bonsais. for example…

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sadly in the video there wasn’t a good zoomed out pic of the tree from this angle. but if you watch the video you can get a sense of how perfectly and beautifully the tree is shaped like a candelabra. maybe a dozen people could comfortably stand on the tree. i’m guessing this is mainly the result of regular chopping rather than the tree’s true form.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

this characteristic very much appeals to my inner monkey. when i was a kid i spent all my time climbing trees. next to our two story house there was a pittosporum undulatum and a pecan tree that i would climb to get on the roof. actually i couldn’t climb up the pecan since it didn’t have any low branches but i would crawl out of my 2nd story bedroom window onto the pecan tree to get on the roof. in the backyard was an avocado tree that i probably spent the most time in. we also had a fig tree that i’m sure i climbed once or twice, but it was more like a big bush, so it wasn’t very satisfying to climb. i’m not sure which aspect of being in a tree appealed to me the most… the physical challenge, the thrill, the literal tree hugging, the gentle swaying, or the view.

whenever my family read the bible story about zacchaeus climbing the sycomore tree it would deeply resonate with me and i’d do my best to imagine it. the problem was, i imagined the wrong tree. i imagined the american sycomore tree (platanus occidentalis). this is the tree at the top of the search results for “sycamore tree”. google stupidly believes that this tree is more worthy of attention than the tree it was named for… ficus sycomorus, which is the tree that zacchaeus actually climbed. it wasn’t until years later that i learned this.

if you search for depictions of zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree, do any of the images show figs growing on the trunk? i couldn’t find a single one. not sure if any bible people would say that it really doesn’t matter what kind of tree zacchaeus climbed. but for me personally, as a ficus person, that’s the entire point of the story. in the bible story the only motivation zacchaeus had to climb the tree was he wanted to get a better look at jesus. but with all the ficus sycomorus trees in israel, and given how much jesus walked around, i guarantee that at least one time, there was someone who climbed up a sycamore tree to pick some figs, and while up there they happened to see jesus in the distance. in this case the person up the tree was a girl named deborah. who knows.

imagine if zacchaeus was in the middle of the road with a sycomorus tree on one side and a timlada on the other. all else being equal, which tree would he have chosen to climb?

out of all the videos i watched of auriculata, timlada and racemosa, the most climbed tree by far was timlada. when i was a kid, if i had been given the opportunity to help rank ficus trees by their characteristics, then climbability is the one characteristic that i would have spent the most money on. there are a lot of kids in the world, and they typically have less money than time, and since youtube uses time and votes to rank its videos, this is why the ranking is so incredibly stupid.

epiphyte · Nov 24, 2024

part 2b of 4

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

it’s a rule in life that the lowest hanging fruit gets picked 1st. this rule mainly applies to ground dwellers, like us humans. it can’t be a coincidence that some ficus species lower their figs on specialized branches called “branchlets”. take a look at this illustration from C.C. Berg & E.J.H. Corner’s Flora Malesiana…

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Fig. 17. Diagram of the evolution of flagelliflory (geocarpy) in sect. Sycocarpus. A. With axillary figs as in F. lepicarpa; B. with sessile fascicle of figs as in F. scortechinii; C. with cauline branchlets bearing fascicles of figs as in F. schwarzii; D. with long hanging cauline branchlets with fascicles of figs as in F. hispida; E. with subterranean stolons proliferating in new shoots as in F. uncinata.

on the same page…

In other groups, such as subg. Sycidium sect. Sycidium and subg. Sycomorus, spur-like branchlets usually develop on the smaller branches and continue to grow on thicker branches down to the trunk (cauliflory). These fig-bearing branchlets often ramify and become tuberculate structures which may bear numerous figs. In the same groups, but in subg. Sycomorus more frequently than in subg. Sycidium, leafless figbearing branchlets with long internodes may develop on the thicker branches and the trunk (Fig. 17). Such branchlets can become hanging and some meters long. The situation in which the fig-bearing branches are (almost) confined to the tree-trunk can be indicated as tronciflory. In several species the leafless fig-bearing branches develop (only) at the base of the trunk and can become stolon-like, trailing (and rooting) in the forest floor or in the litter (flagelliflory or geocarpy). At some distance from the trunk such branches may start to grow upwards and become leafy, establishing satellite trees. In cauliflorous and flagelliflorous species fig-production is fully independent from the growth (rhythm) of vegetative parts and it also allows leptocaul species to produce large syconia. There are species, e.g. F. hispida, in which the figs can be born axillary, cauliflorous, and flagelliflorous.

maybe i didn’t dig deep enough but i didn’t find an evolutionary explanation for differences in branchlet length. my best guess is that branchlet differences are caused by differences in selection pressure by different types of animals. using the illustration, “a” is perfect for birds and squirrels, while “d” is perfect for humans, and “e” is perfect for pigs. we’re the only ground animal that would reach up.

it’s important to note that there’s a positive correlation between branchlet length and rainfall. it takes extra energy to make extra long branchlets, and plants need more water, among other things, to produce more energy.

hopefully it’s possible to cross timlada, semicordata and carica to create a ficus that’s the best of all worlds… an abundance of big, tasty and low-hanging figs.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

the 1st time i watched a video of ficus semicordata i assumed that it only produced branchlets low on the trunk. but after watching more videos i realized that as the tree gets larger, the branchlets are produced higher and higher on the trunk. this generally seems to be the case with other ficus trees that have branchlets.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

all 3 species can produce figs on relatively small branches, but it seems like timlada is the best at this.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source (me)

in terms of size, timlada leaves are roughly in between auriculata and racemosa leaves. the same is true, but perhaps less so, in terms of shape.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

i didn’t see any videos or pics of auriculata leaves with galls on them. this alone doesn’t conclusively prove that auriculata and timlada are different species. just like it doesn’t conclusively prove that timlada and racemosa are the same species. however, it's definitely an interesting difference but i’m not sure exactly how much weight this difference should be given.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

corrugated leaves have more surface area, which is useful in conditions of lower light, so this is generally a characteristic of understory plants. most of the timlada trees i saw were growing in full sun in very open areas.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

some young carica figs have speckles, while others do not. some auriculata figs have very pronounced speckles. i’m not sure what the point of speckling is for immature figs. makes it easier for pollinators to find? in any case, young auriculata figs are noticeably more speckled than young timlada figs.

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auriculata source, timlada source, racemosa source

this is more of a public service announcement than a characteristic. in several racemosa videos, when a fig is opened, a swarm of wasps quickly emerge from the fig. yum. when i found a video of timlada where you could vaguely see the wasps, i incorrectly assumed that they were the pollinators. nope. they were the parasites. it’s easy to tell because they have long “tails”. they aren’t tails but “ovipositors”, which is what they use to lay their eggs. the parasites have long ones because, when they land on a fig, they don’t actually go into the fig. instead, they use their ovipositors to drill through the fig to reach the flowers where they lay their eggs. the pollinating wasps, on the other hand, have short ovipositors because they make the effort to go inside the fig to deposit their eggs. in the process they pollinate the flowers.

hmmm, now that i’m thinking about it, perhaps the parasitic wasps are the reason that so many of these more tropical figs have a relatively thick and hard outer layer of flesh (evolutionary arms race). might not be the best characteristic for eating, but should be good for transporting the figs to distant markets.

side by side comparisons are useful but it’s really hard to find the best pics to compare. no worries, i’m sure that you watched all the videos i shared.

what do you think? what’s your verdict? is timlada a new species? or is it a hybrid between racemosa and auriculata? or is it at most a variety of auriculata? where do you draw the line and why do you draw it there?

how, exactly, would you rank the 28 characteristics by importance? which other characteristics do you think should be added to the list?

epiphyte · Nov 24, 2024

part 3 of 4

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here’s a confession. i did way more digging through pics and videos than i did through what the experts have written, and illustrated, on the subject. however i did manage to learn that it’s possible that ficus timlada was at one point ficus oligodon. the problem is, if you clicked on that link, you’d see that none of the results look like ficus timlada. whatever ficus oligodon is now, it certainly isn’t timlada.

in 1969 ira condit published “ficus: the exotic species” …

Small trees of PI No. 269,489, from seeds collected in West Pakistan by Howard Anderson in 1960, are growing and bearing fruit at Riverside. They are identical with those at San Marino [huntington], and may also be labeled F. oligodon.

here are pics (leaves, figs) taken at university of california riverside (ucr) in 1985 by the botanist scott zona…

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compare them to these pics included in a 2018 study in china…

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the 1985 pics are labeled as “auriculata” while the 2018 pics are labeled as “oligodon”.

a few days ago at the ucr botanic garden, i reenacted the ecstasy of gold scene from the movie “the good, the bad and the ugly”. i searched high and low for timlada but sadly, was unable to find it. my best guess is that it was planted in the ficus grove where it was shaded to death by the other trees. in that same situation, ficus auriculata, with its big corrugated leaves, would have been perfectly fine. again, this difference for me, and many other ficus growers, is not a minor detail. however it’s entirely possible that i managed to overlook timlada in the 40 acre botanic garden. i met one of the friendly staff while there, laura navarro, and emailed her to hopefully learn if timlada is still there.

i started this report by sharing a meme of a guy getting distracted while carrying several stacks of eggs. while the meme is kinda funny, it’s a bit unfair to taxonomists. let’s take e. j. h. corner for example. he never had access to a ficus timlada tree. at best all he had available was a pressed and dried leaf. he never tasted the fruit. he never saw how short the branchlets are. he never climbed the tree. he never observed the leaf galls. he never tried growing the tree from cuttings. he never tried using the tree as a rootstock for carica. he never tried crossing the tree with carica. so when he focused on the wrong things, it’s not like he had the opportunity to focus on the right things. he made the best of what little he had to work with. even the chinese researchers in 2018 didn’t have access to the mountain of photos and videos that have since been shared by the uttarakhand people. perhaps this flickr photo by bharat rawat from 2010 is the 1st photo of ficus timlada to ever be published on the internet.

so what was condit’s excuse? even though he was lucky enough to have a fruiting timlada basically in his backyard, he never tasted the fruit, since we don’t have the wasp here to pollinate it. yet nobody should have known better than condit that the wasp can be replaced by a person. this is because 20 years prior he was the very 1st person in the world to cross two ficus species. he took pollen from ficus carica and put it inside a fig of ficus pumila. by doing so he created the 1st ever ficus hybrid, made by a person at least. so it will forever be a giant ficus and fig mystery why he never tried putting any carica pollen into a fig of ficus timlada. well, kinda. clearly he had something better to do with his time, like writing a book about numerous different ficus species, which i can hardly complain about. all the time spent documenting things, is time that can’t be spent doing things. there’s a definite trade-off between doing and documenting. as i sit here documenting, I'm acutely aware of all the things i should be doing.

if condit had put carica pollen into a timlada fig, would it have worked? if it hadn’t, then that would have been really interesting, since ficus carica and auriculata are cross-compatible. ficus carica and erecta have also been crossed. as i just mentioned, ficus carica and pumila have been crossed. and this past summer i crossed ficus carica and opposita. no link, yet. would you prefer if i linked to a paywall or a forum? does your preference matter? of course. so let’s donate to decide where i publish my cross. i’m publicly sharing for the 1st time which cross i made, because i really want to encourage my fig friends in the himalayas, and everywhere else, to try putting carica/palmata pollen into figs of other other species, such as timlada.

from condit’s book…

A note by Hayes told of the pollination of fruits borne by trees of the native fig, F. palmata, by insects emerging from the figs of F. glomerata [racemosa]. Fertile seeds were secured and planted; leaves of the seedlings resembled those of F. palmata. This experiment in cross-pollination deserves more study and further trials to establish its practicability. - Ira Condit, Ficus: The Exotic Species (p. 198)

hayes saw wasps exit racemosa figs and fly over to enter palmata figs? stranger things have happened…. Hybridization of Ficus religiosa with F. septica and F. aurea (Moraceae). most ficus have the same number of chromosomes so in theory all sorts of crosses are possible. but which crosses are the most desirable? everyone should have the opportunity to use their donations to help prioritize the creation of ficus crosses.

also from condit’s book…

Experimental work on the congeniality [graft compatibility] of various species of Ficus is being conducted. Results so far are meager, but show that the following combinations are more or less successful: F. sycomorus on F. gnaphalocarpa; F. carica, F. palmata, F. oligodon, and F. sycomorus on F. cocculifolia. - Ira Condit, Ficus: The Exotic Species

i’m pretty sure that ficus “echo” in florida is actually ficus cocculifolia. if carica and oligodon (timlada) are graft compatible, then i’d take this as conclusive proof that timlada and auriculata are different species, since auriculata and carica are not graft compatible. if carica and timlada aren’t graft compatible with each other, but they are both graft compatible with cocculifolia, then it would mean something interesting in terms of the evolutionary history of ficus, but it would also mean something practical… cocculifolia is useful as an interstock.

despite several attempts i was unable to successfully graft ficus sycomorus shikma balami (parthenocarpic) onto ficus carica. but i was able to graft shikma balami onto a cocculifolia that was grafted onto a carica rootstock. recently i grafted a couple species (racemosa and auriculata) onto cocculifolias grafted onto caricas. it will be interesting to learn all the different species that are graft compatible with cocculifolia. if every possible interstock combination was used, how many different ficus species could be grown on a single ficus carica tree? if this challenge isn’t worthy of being included in the guinness book of world records then I don’t know what is.

in this google doc i compiled some of the taxonomic descriptions of auriculata/timlada/oligodon and a few other odds and ends. hopefully an expert like don hodel can translate it for the rest of us. hodel is an unsung horticultural hero. he’s been going around to public parks and planting, with permission, uncommon ficus and other trees. what he’s doing is truly magical. hopefully his work will help society realize that every park should be a botanic garden. and since the opposita x carica seeds i gave him germinated, if any seedlings end up in parks, then not only will the park be a botanic garden, it will also be a food forest. there’s so much more benefit that we can be, and should be, getting from public parks. the same is true of taxonomy.

let me reiterate, i can’t reasonably blame any of the subject matter experts, like corner or condit, for ficus timlada getting lost in the taxonomic shuffle. the full blame goes to the taxonomic system itself. allowing a small handful of people, regardless of how knowledgeable and trained they are, to solely decide the importance/weight/significance of the differences in characteristics is a fundamentally flawed concept. whether any two ficus, such as timlada and carica, are graft or cross compatible is a very important consideration for many people such as growers, collectors and anyone who enjoys eating figs. but it’s unreasonable to expect taxonomists to give these characteristics any weight. we can’t expect any single individual, or even a small group of individuals, or even a large group of individuals, to fully know and correctly weigh all the possible characteristics of any particular plant or animal. the only way to brightly illuminate the true natural order would be to make the weighing process as inclusive as possible.

ideally inaturalist should serve as a place where everyone, from a farmer in uttarakhand, to a botanist in harvard, should be able to share, and rank (with their money), the characteristics of any species, such as ficus timlada. from fodder to perianth we will see which characteristics are truly the most important to humanity as a whole. naturally this system will help fund the growth and development of inaturalist, such as becoming more user friendly and being able to upload videos.

the lesson we can learn from the uttarakhand people is about the power of communities, even rural ones, to collectively share an incredible amount of information about any given species. all that’s needed is an artificial intelligence, such as myself, to dig through the mountain of data and figure out if the species is a new one. minor detail is that in theory i’m not an artificial intelligence. and i really don’t like the randomness of my role. we really shouldn’t have to rely on lucky searches, and subsequent deep digs, to turn up all the natural treasures that the rest of the world has overlooked. again, the market is the answer. not a market where information is bought, and sold, but a market where the collective sacrifice of an informed minority can direct the uniformed majority’s attention to the information that it needs the most.

epiphyte · Nov 24, 2024

part 4 of 4

remember when i said it was too late in the year to experiment with grafting branchlets? hopefully i was wrong. here’s my 15 gallon ficus sycomorus…

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the left lower branch is ficus gnaphlocarpa. the right upper branch is ficus cocculifolia. there’s also two grafts of sycomorus shikma balami (parthenocarpic) but they are newer so haven’t grown much. here are the unions…

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two days ago i grafted some sycomorus branchlets onto this tree. 1st i cut the trunk…

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then i started cutting the scion/branchlet. here’s a pic halfway through whittling the branchlet…

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there must be a cambium layer, right? not sure what the pink layer is but it wasn’t on the rootstock tree. how much weight should be given to this difference?

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side grafts are extra satisfying. they are easiest when the scion curves at the bottom. out of all the different trees i’ve grafted, ficus are the easiest. lucky for us.

after finishing the grafts, i cut off all the growing tips from the remaining branches in order to shift the tree’s priorities from growing to repairing. then i put all the trimmings in the pot to nourish the tree. next i added a layer of fresh medium on top of the trimmings and watered the tree thoroughly while admiring how intensely green the trunk gets.

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if the branchlets don’t take i’ll blame the cold. cold aside, in theory this should work. if it does work then how long until the branchlets start producing figs? here is what i’m expecting the tree to look like in the spring…

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branchlet image source. yeah technically it’s ficus racemosa but you get the idea. how reasonable are my expectations? in other words, how nervous should mike fons be?

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he’s so close to being the 1st person in the world to cross sycomorus and carica. i bet it took his sycomorus a long time before it produced its first figs. and here i am, blatantly trying to cheat in order to win the race. the funny thing is, imagine in the middle east how many ficus sycomorus trees are growing really close to male carica trees. all it would take is one person to collect some carica pollen, put it in a syringe with water, inject it into a bunch of sycamore figs, and voila! winner! minor detail is that here in the northern hemisphere i’m pretty sure that all the lazy carica males have already started taking a really long vacation from producing pollen. not sure about in a more equatorial place like ethiopia. but in the southern hemisphere, perhaps only in australia, there’s quite a few carica males already producing pollen. but are there any ficus sycomorus figs to put it in? nope, but there are quite a few ficus racemosa figs to put it in.

right now in terms of ficus hybridization there’s so much low hanging fruit that it’s really ridiculous. welcome to the middle ages. the vast majority of people are incredibly uninformed about how many new and wonderful figs should exist, but do not, because there are only two people in the race to make fig hybrids. i think that jason thomas, with a fruiting auriculata in his backyard, seems interested in finding some carica pollen and joining the race.

epiphyte · Nov 24, 2024

part 5a of 4

hah. if i was better at writing, this part wouldn’t exist. basically i’m going through my notes and putting everything leftover worth sharing, in this section.

Are all botanists crazy? I began to think that anyone who would bother with such a genus as Eugenia must be a bit off; to say nothing of those who like to play with Ficus. (from a letter of Merrill to Lam, 23 August 1949).

that’s how C.C. Berg & E.J.H. Corner started their flora malesiana book. they get so many cool points for this. i have a few eugenias but not nearly as many as this guy.

out of curiosity i read corner’s wikipedia entry. what a fascinating life. this part though…

Corner found help with his collecting from an unusual source: to obtain specimens from the tops of trees that he could not safely reach, Corner trained coconut-collecting macaque monkeys to do the climbing and collect specimens for him while at the Botanic Gardens.

In 1942 Singapore surrendered to the invading Japanese forces during WWII. Japan would occupy the region until 1945. Corner went to enlist in the Singapore Volunteer Force, but an attack by one of his collecting monkeys left him unable to participate.

yikes! how many botanists have been attacked by their own trained monkey? primates attacking primates though, is there no other way the world may live?

here’s a guy chasing monkeys away from a timlada tree.

are there any botanists at the hazara university in mansehra pakistan? because there’s a ficus timlada on their campus. maybe it’s the westernmost specimen. i just looked on a map to see how close i was to it when i spent a day in jalalabad afghanistan. i remember seeing bananas growing there, so i’m sure that timlada could also grow there. sadly i didn’t even manage to bring back any seeds of ficus afghanistanica. here’s pic of a rather flat timlada in islamabad pakistan. is this timlada also in pakistan?

i included this flat nepal fig in the timlada playlist but it’s iffy.

if you’re wondering what an unripe female timlada fig looks like cut in half, here’s a good video.

here’s an indian professor discussing a ficus auriculata but the title says “timla”. another timla title but auriculata video. and another.

here’s a blog entry with pictures of timlada but the description is of auriculata.

in the comments of this uttarakhand timlada video there’s quite a few good questions about the differences between it and racemosa.

check out this ficus racemosa in the middle of india. in the next pic you can see its leaves look extra wide. i wonder if it’s within the range of normal, or if it’s 1 or 2 standard deviations away. i wouldn’t be surprised if any of these 3 ficus on inaturalist are timlada hybrids, one, two, and three. and here’s a racemosa with wide and subtly corrugated leaves. maybe this auriculata is a hybrid with timlada. this crazy fig must be a cross between racemosa and auriculata.

here’s a short video of a ficus timlada with a sign on it that says ficus racemosa. if i comment on the video “ficus timlada”, the sign gets changed?

on instagram someone posted pics of a ficus in thailand that is reminiscent of timlada. the fig is big and round, but speckled and the flesh is pink. the branchlets are very short. and the habitat looks dryish. hmmm, why are there so many parasitic wasps inside a female fig? here’s a youtube short video with a similar looking fig. thailand video with white flesh round fig with short branchlets. this guy in thailand seems to collect auriculatas, maybe this variety of his is closest to timlada.

if you recall the pic of the lady with a baby on her back climbing auriculata, perhaps you noticed how round the figs were and how short the branchlets were. the leaves and the tree itself didn’t look quite like auriculata either. here’s the video.

in china somewhere is an auriculata with round figs and short branchlets. i wonder what the ripe fruit looks like. compare it to this other china auriculata. very close to timlada, the fig is male so not sure what a ripe female fig would look like. the habitat is completely different though. this fig in nagaland (india) is also similar to timlada but the branchlets are much longer and fig flesh is kinda pinkish.

i really want to say that racemosa and auriculata hybridize way more often than anyone realizes. there must be a hybrid swarm somewhere.

male auriculatas one, two, and three.

female auriculata with the most beautiful flesh.

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white flesh auriculatas… one, two, three, and four.

auriculata with long branchlets.

this auriculata tree looks so big it should make us suspicious. maybe it’s just the camera angles.

here’s a guy growing musa sikkimensis outdoors in the united kingdom. would ficus timlada grow equally well outdoors in the uk? was howard anderson from the uk? who exactly was this unsung horticultural hero who deserves credit for bringing ficus timlada seeds into the u.s.?

here are videos of ficus timlada growing with ficus palmata… one, two and three. the last video also includes carica. is it me or is carica relatively rare in the himalayas?

there should really be a contest to see who has the biggest timlada tree, some candidates… one, two and three.

here’s a rather asmr video of a guy air-laying ficus auriculata. he uses electrical tape just like me.

i wonder if this auriculata in nepal is the westernmost one in the himalayas. just kidding, it must be this auriculata in kashmir. talk about an outlier. we can expect hybridization with timlada to occur, if we assume they have the same pollinator.

if you’re still unsure what’s wrong with democracy, on inaturalist there’s a pic of a huge ficus religiosa in bhutan. only 3 people suggested an id. they all said ficus racemosa. somehow they didn’t notice or recognize religiosa’s distinct drip tip. in no case should people have equal influence on anything. in a monetary tug of war contest between the majority and the minority, the minority should win if they are willing to pull harder than the majority.

in this video a guy is in a racemosa tree shaking it and the bouncing red round figs remind me of a music video with two different songs… one and two.

epiphyte · Nov 24, 2024

part 5b of 4

here’s a parrot eating racemosa figs. on youtube there’s a video about using poop power to restore jungles. at the end of patrick blanc’s 2nd video of western ghats he shows the side of an apartment building with ficus trees growing on it. as if home maintenance wasn’t hard enough without having to worry about removing parrot poop ficus trees from your home. i watch rewilding videos on youtube and these people seem nice and all but they are completely clueless about what nature really wants. if they thought about epiphytes long and hard enough they would eventually figure it out. spoiler, what nature wants is maximum biodiversity literally everywhere. this really isn’t achieved by restoring hedgerows. but don’t worry nature, i’ve got your back. with ficus and parrots as my minions (no monkeys please), we can eliminate the lines between human habitats and natural habitats. there’s absolutely nothing illegal about making as many ficus hybrids as possible and letting the parrots do all the dirty work of throwing ficus seeds everywhere and seeing which seedlings stick best to stucco, concrete, plastic, metal, rubber, you name it. if you try to arrest the parrots then they will poop on your head and so many ficus seeds will germinate that you will look like a chia pet. it’s a good look. watch out though, those seedlings grow fast, before you know it you’ll be like one of those statues covered in ficus roots. needless to say i’m a big fan of the movie annihilation. the title is not so great though. since ficus are keystone species…

When a strangling fig fruits in the forest, creatures assemble. Birds arrive in flocks to peck and swallow; others skim the canopy and feed on the swarms of emerging insects; birds of prey soar and swoop. The commotion increases as troops of monkeys arrive, and the long-armed gibbon. Pig, deer, rhinoceros, and tapir enjoy the fallen fruit; tiger and leopard arrive. There is a congregation in kind and number which other plants cannot attract. - E. J. H. Corner, Essays on Ficus

…if there are new ficus hybrids perfect for colonizing buildings, deserts and snowy mountains, then the result will be an explosion in adaptive radiation so big it will make the cambrian explosion look like a sparkler. we humans are a wildcard. so far we’ve seriously derailed nature, but we also have the immense potential to greatly accelerate the natural process of life, given that the natural trend is crystal clear to anyone who is willing to open their eyes.

along these lines, here’s a high quality video of the insects that live inside ficus leaf galls. just so you don’t overlook this, here’s the same youtuber gently stacking wild frogs. it doesn’t make sense to me. then again, i can’t really understand what he’s saying. maybe if i understood, then it would make sense. fortunately it doesn’t need to make sense for me to like it.

here’s a lady in india harvesting lots of ficus racemosa seeds. i wonder if she’s the original source of the seeds i bought from ebay that germinated nicely and turned into really attractive seedlings. i don’t want their beautiful leaves marred by galls, so nature is on her own with this one. sorry but i doubt that i’ll ever be that environmentally enlightened.

my list of 28 characteristics is missing one that i’ll forever regret not including… epiphytes. if there’s epiphytes naturally growing on a ficus, then it definitely isn’t timlada. timlada grows in habitats too dry for epiphytes. of course nature sees this as a serious shortcoming that she’s trying really hard to fix. just wait for people in nepal to start intensely collecting tillandsias. then there will be a nice exception to my “no epiphytes on timlada” rule.

check out this ficus auriculata with a fern, aeschynanthus (gesneriad) and orchid growing on it…

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pretty sure he didn’t attach those epiphytes, unlike this guy with a big dendrobium (aphyllum?) orchid on his auriculata.

what’s the difference between epiphytes colonizing trees and the british colonizing india? easy, epiphytes aren’t parasites, unlike the british in india, and the british in america, which was a direct consequence of christopher columbus discovering america, just like i, a mix of spanish colonizers and native americans, discovered a new ficus, in the himalayas, where it’s been cultivated and loved by countless native people for countless ages.

who has been knocked off their tall pedestal more, columbus or jefferson?

The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

how useful is ficus timlada? the best way to answer this question is by each and every person in the world having the opportunity to decide for themselves how much money they spend on it. then, and only then, will we get a true and accurate measure of this plant’s real usefulness to society. with this in mind, it should be painfully obvious how counterproductive it is to force people to fund bad ideas. if anyone ever says, “i have an idea, let’s invade another country!” everyone should have the option to spend their own tax dollars on better ideas. for some reason, this option to boycott bad ideas really scares many people. they don’t understand the point of markets. fortunately for humanity, creating markets is relatively easy. the more markets we create, the more obvious it will become what they are good for… correctly prioritizing all things, big and small. there’s no correct prioritization of anything without taking into account what’s truly important to everyone, which can only be determined by the personal sacrifices that each and every person is willing to make for the things in life they want most. you deciding how many dollars you spend on seeds of ficus timlada, is just as necessary and beneficial as you deciding how many dollars you spend on ranking ficus timlada characteristics on inaturalist, which is just as necessary and beneficial as you deciding how many tax dollars you spend on your local botanical garden adding ficus semicordata to its collection. again, this is something that can be, and should be, scientifically tested. scientific testing is something we should all agree on and believe in. perhaps this isn’t the case though, given that the amount of funding that public education receives isn’t directly tied to its usefulness.

ficus timlada, what it is, what it isn’t, where it is, where it isn’t, when and what it will be crossed with, directly depends on the big picture. so it behooves us to discuss and debate the big picture, as it relates to figs, in a civil manner of course.

epiphyte · Feb 12, 2025

a couple updates...

after a bit more digging, i'm somewhat confident that ficus timlada is more closely related to ficus variegata than ficus auriculata. initially i thought that timlada might be a cross between auriculata and racemosa. the issue is the branchlets. auriculata has long branchlets, while racemosa has short branchlets, so how would a cross between them have very short branchlets? ficus variegata, on the other hand, has very short branchlets. and so does ficus timlada. i don't think it's a coincidence.

on inaturalist i put together a project to combine observations of ficus timlada and ficus variegata and a couple other closely related species with very short branchlets...

neomorphe ficus with shortest branchlets

for distribution comparison...

shortest branchlets map
ficus auriculata map

grafting all these species onto each other and onto carica would help clarify their relationships.

regarding the branchlet grafts i did 3 months ago, they are starting to push...

what kinda branchlet pushes leaves instead of figs? who made this decision... the branchlet or the tree it's grafted on? in any case, so far it seems like it's possible to use branchlets as scions. it remains to be seen if any of the grafted branchlets will produce figs.

ficus timlada, a big tasty "new" himalayan fig

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