Ficus lyrata
commonly known as the fiddle-leaf fig, is a species of fig tree, family Moraceae, native to western Africa, from Cameroon west to Sierra Leone.
It
grows in lowland tropical rainforest.
It has
very large violin-shaped or guitar-shaped leaves and is often cultivated as a
pot or tub plant. The spherical, golf ball size fruits must have some sugar in
them, as our Dobby Dog loves to crunch
them up when they fall dry from the tree.
Whoever would have thought that this popular easy going house plant could
grow into such a monster tree? Not me, that is, not me before I inherited one.
Seven years ago, when we moved in, it was a good looking shrubby thing growing not much taller
than the wall behind it but suddenly,
one windy day a couple of weeks ago, we
noticed that it looked like it might bring down the telephone line in which it
had become entangled. We had grown so
used to the welcome summer shade it provided that we hadn’t really noticed
how huge it had become.
It took ‘himself’ and son-in-law the whole day to prune it, cut up the
branches for firewood and bag up the giant
leaves.
It’s looking quite a sorry sight
right now but I expect it will recover before too long.
 |
| Devastation |
