Ficus sarmentosa - Nepal Fig

Nepal Fig is a large, woody climber or shrub, with ashy grey to brown bark. Young twigs are brownish-velvet-hairy when growing in damp shady places otherwise almost hairless. Leaves are carried on 8-12 mm long, hairy leaf-stalk. Leaf blade is variable, ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceshaped or elliptic, 2.5-10 cm long, 1.5-4.5 cm broad, 3-costate at the rounded, heart-shaped, or wedge-shaped base, margins entire, tip pointed or tapering, hairless above, velvet-hairy to becoming hairless beneath, lateral nerves 5-8 pairs, bulging underneath, intercostals irregular; stipules linear to ovate-lanceshaped, 6-10 mm long, brownish villose. Hypanthodia usually solitary rarely paired, in leaf-axils, stalkless to shortly stalked, spherical to ovoid or obovoid, 8-15 mm in diameter, warted or wrinkled, minutely hairy, subtended by 3, ovate, pointed usually reflexed basal bracts, apical orifice narrow, covered with minute bracts. Figs aew usually spherical or obovoid, 1-2 cm in diameter, orange-red. The fig is eaten raw, seeds are used for jelly. Nepal Fig is found in the Himalayas, from Pakistan to China, at altitudes of 1400-2500 m. Flowering: May-September.