Creek bank stabiliser
Straggly tree to 12 metres, fast growing, along creeks, in rainforest and open country, widespread on coast and tablelands. Normally a small tree, some specimens can grow much larger, with a girth of 30 cm and a height of up to 15 m. Grows densely in full sun. An excellent as a pioneer tree and for stream bank stabilisation. Leaves ovate (egg-shaped) to oblong, to 10 cm long, larger and often lobed on young growth, margins entire or toothed, upper surface strongly scabrous, lower surface often pubescent; petiole bristly. The leaves were used to polish shields made from Blue Quandong wood.
Photo: Robert Whyte
Fruit are purple, succulent receptacle, densely hairy, sweet and edible but not particularly tasty. Ripe mainly summer and autumn, but also all year. The fruit are edible raw when fully ripe, but the furry skin can be irritant, and must be peeled off first. Good jam fruit, but fussy to prepare. Ficus from Latin meaning fig, coronata referring to bristles at the tip of the fruit. Aborigines used the milky latex of young shoots to heal wounds. The fruit is eaten by the Fig Bird, Green Catbird, Grey-headed Fruit Bat. One of many host plants for the larvae of the Common Crow Euploea core butterfly.
Fruit and foliage. Photo: Robert Whyte
Cauliflory. The Sandpaper fig is cauliflorous, that is, it fruits from the trunk as well as elsewhere. Photo: Robert Whyte
Seed collecting and propagation
Like some other Australian native figs, the Creek Sandpaper Fig relies on a tiny wasp for pollination. This wasp is also entirely reliant on the fig to complete its life cycle. The process is explained on the Australian Museum web site. The wasps mate inside a fruit, then the female goes off to another fruit to lay eggs pollinating the second fruit. It’s only when the process is fully complete that the seed is viable and the dead insect has dissolved inside. The wasps are very small – less than 1.5 mm in length.
Propagation by seed, cuttings or aerial layers. The fruit is a red purple to black fig, ovoid 20 mm long, hairy with a crown of bristles at top. Ripe in December to March. If collecting the fruit for propagation, it’s important to look for large, soft, fully mature fruit which has turned a dark purple red colour. Seed germinates readily when fresh. Use the water separation method to separate seeds from the fruit pulp by utilizing the differing densities of seeds and fruit pulp in water. Dry the seed on a coffee filter or similar. Germination is variable as some batches of seeds are not viable. Allow 2-4 weeks for germination.
Photo: Robert Whyte
Fruit and undersides of foliage. The leaves are strongly veined underneath and are often ravaged by native and introduced fig-leaf beetles Chrysomelids which can also denude exotic table fig plants in gardens. Photo: Robert Whyte
