8.
Ficus americana
Aublet, Hist. Pl. Guiane. 952. 1775.
West Indian laurel fig
Trees , evergreen, to 12 m. Roots adventitious, aerial. Bark grayish to brown, smooth. Branchlets grayish, smooth. Leaves: stipules 0.7-0.9 cm; petiole 0.2-1 cm. Leaf blade elliptic to obovate, 2-8 × 1-4 cm, base usually acute or cuneate to nearly obtuse, margins entire, apex acute, obtuse, or short-apiculate; surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrous; basal veins 1(-2) pairs; lateral veins 6-14 pairs, not uniformly spaced. Syconia paired, red, not spotted, globose, 3-7 mm diam., glabrous; peduncles 2-5 mm; subtending bracts 2, basally connate, ovate, 1-1.5 mm; ostiole ca. 1 mm wide, subtended by 3 bracts, bracts ca. 1 mm, not umbonate.
Flowering all year. Disturbed thickets; 0-10 m; introduced; Fla.; Mexico; native to West Indies; Central America; South America.
The name Ficus perforata Linnaeus (Pl. Surin., 17. 1775) is an illegitimate name, based on the same type collection as F . americana Aublet. Ficus americana is locally escaped from cultivation.
