Ficus sur ripe fruit

An ample bunch of ripening Ficus sur fruit may present a multicoloured display unlike any other arboreal attraction.

One can imagine that when this large cluster was green and the figs hard, the branch might well have served as a broom to sweep a yard. Hopefully such practices have long been discontinued, only the common name of broom cluster fig to remain.

This fruiting branch never growing any leaves and positioned low on the trunk of a tall tree, produces regular lavish harvests of increasing volume, more frequently than calendar seasons. A week after this photo was taken most of the figs had dropped off, innumerable gnats presiding over their smelly fermentation below.

Within a few weeks of the last fig dropping, tiny green “figlets” will appear in great numbers all over the branched structure to repeat the performance. The tree, just over 30 years old, clearly approves of its living conditions in the low-lying sandy soil of a coastal garden where it is swamped for days on end, a few times annually during winter rains (Coates Palgrave, 2002).