The famous American botanist David Fairchild (1869 - 1954) for whom the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden was named wrote in 1927 about a Ficus auriculata (then F. roxburghii) that he had seen at the Oratava on Tenerife in the Canary Islands and also later at the Alligator Farm in Florida in The Journal of Heredity. He noted that Don Juan Bolinaga, the Director of the botanic garden had told him that one needed to fertilize or at least “stimulate” the flowers on the inside of the developing fruit to make it ripen and become edible. Later Fairchild wrote in the Florida State Horticultural Journal of 1944 that he attempted repeatedly to do this without success and later determined that without a particular wasp, a species of Blastophaga, that naturally pollinates this plant, the fruit would remain inedible. Ficus auriculata (as F. roxburghii) was an introduction into California by Francisco Franceschi at his Santa Barbara nursery. Peter Riedel ("Plants for Extra-tropical Regions" - published after Riedel's death in 1957) documents this introduction in 1909 by Franceschi with a subsequent introduction by the US Bureau of Plant Industry (USDA) in 1928 (BPI-#76755-1928). There was not a comparison made of the two accessions. Riedel further noted that there was a large tree on the grounds of UCLA in 1935. The genus name Ficus comes from the ancient Latin name for figs and their edible fruit and the specific epithet comes from the Latin word 'auricular', a diminutive of 'auris' meaning "the ear" in reference to the large rounded lobes of the leaves that resemble an ear.

Joint horticultural society tour of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s beautiful grounds Fairchild Garden. Dr. Brett Jestrow conducted a tour of the Montgomery Palmetum, which was followed by a gratuitous Ficus auriculata tasting by Dr. Chad Husby who shared this luscious fig with us. We owe the late Larry Schokman for reintroducing this Moraceae species from Bogor, Indonesia, back to the Kampong in 1994 as it was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Now, through the efforts of Dr. Husby & Dr. Jestrow this Ficus is conserved & planted at both The Kampong, Dr. Fairchild's former home, & at FTBG.

This fruit is native to and originates in the Himalayas to Southeast Asia & Southern China. It is commonly known as Roxburgh's fig, Elephant ear fig, & Indian big leaf fig, whose young leaves can be prepared as a vegetable. "The 2-inch, oblate (spheroid and flattened at the poles), red to brown pubescent fruit are borne in dense clusters at the base of the trunk." (Schokman, 2012) Which Dr. Jestrow is examining in the photo. Specific epithet auriculata means 'lobed like an ear'.

Jorge J. Zaldivar, Rare Fruit Council International, Inc., RFCI, Miami