Fiddle-Leaf Fig

The fiddle-leaf fig has never held a place in traditional herbal medicine or the kitchen. Its story is a horticultural one rather than a healing one, a rainforest understory tree that Victorian plant hunters and, much later, midcentury interior decorators prized for its enormous, glossy, violin-shaped leaves. In its native West and Central Africa, it grows as a towering forest tree, sometimes rooting on the branches of other trees before sending roots down to the soil. In homes and offices worldwide it has become one of the most recognizable statement plants, valued purely for the drama and warmth its foliage brings to a room.