Photo: User DO'Neil on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Moreton Bay Fig

Ficus macrophylla

Also known as Australian Banyan, Black Fig, Moreton Bay Banyan

At a glance

Family

Moraceae (the mulberry and fig family)

Type

Evergreen strangler fig tree

Parts used

Not used medicinally; historically the inner bark and aerial roots were valued for fiber

Size

Can tower 60 to 100 feet tall with a canopy spreading well over 100 feet, braced by massive plank buttress roots

Bloom

Flowers are hidden entirely inside the small green fig, pollinated by a single specialized wasp species

Habitat

Subtropical rainforest edges and coastal gullies of eastern Australia, from northern New South Wales up through Queensland

Acquisition

Grow

This plant in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Casts deep, cathedral-like shade

Anchors soil with buttress roots

Feeds birds and flying foxes

Serves as a striking landmark tree

Traditional uses

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This is a tree remembered more for shelter and craft than for the medicine chest. Aboriginal peoples of eastern Australia's coast stripped the fibrous inner bark and pliable aerial roots of the Moreton Bay fig to twist into strong cordage, used for dilly bags, fishing lines, and nets, a practice recorded among several coastal groups who prized the tree's tough, workable fiber. The dense wood and wide, easily worked trunk also lent themselves to canoe and shield making in some regions. Beyond craft, the tree's real gift has always been its shade and shelter, with old specimens becoming natural meeting places, and its fruit sustaining flying foxes, pigeons, and countless other birds that in turn seed the next generation of forest giants.

How to grow & use it

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The full apothecary for Moreton Bay Fig

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✦Remedies & preparations
✦ Growing guide
✦Harvest & storage

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Pairs well with

✦Ficus religiosa (Bodhi tree)
✦Ficus benghalensis (Banyan)

Substitutes

✦Ficus benjamina (weeping fig, for smaller landscapes)

Choose it when

“For the tree that will outlive you, and shelter generations you will never meet.”

Did you know?

A single Moreton Bay fig planted in Santa Barbara, California in 1876 has grown so immense that its canopy now shades more than a third of an acre, making it one of the largest trees of its kind in the United States, all from a seedling reportedly carried over in a sailor's pocket.

Safety

Not eaten; its milky latex sap can irritate skin, so wear gloves when pruning. Its roots are aggressive enough to damage foundations and pavement, so give it plenty of space away from structures.