Ficus insipida is a common tropical tree in the fig genus of the family Moraceae growing in forest habitats along rivers. It ranges from Mexico to northern South America.
Taxonomy
The tree was described in 1806 under the scientific name Ficus insipida (literally "insipid fig") by Carl Ludwig Willdenow, having studied the herbarium specimens collected in Caracas by the gardener Franz Bredemeyer in the 1780s during the Märter Expedition [de]. Willdenow reports its fruit are tasteless. Incongruously, among the many species of figs to grow in the region, this species is in fact recognisable by its large and sweet figs (when ripe).
In the 1960 Flora of Panama, Gordon P. DeWolf Jr. lumped the species F. adhatodifolia and F. crassiuscula as synonyms of F. insipida, but his taxonomic interpretation was not followed by subsequent authorities.
Ficus expert Cees Berg distinguished two allopatric or almost allopatric subspecies in 1984:
Ficus insipida subsp. insipida Willd. - Largely glabrous twigs, leaves and petioles. Occurs in Mesoamerica, the Caribbean, Venezuela to Bolivia.
Ficus insipida subsp. scabra C.C.Berg - Much hairier plant. Occurs in the Guianas, from Venezuela to northeast Brazil.
With about 750 species, Ficus (Moraceae) is one of the largest angiosperm genera. F. insipida is classified in subgenus Pharmacosycea, section Pharmacosycea, subsection Bergianae (for which it is the type species), along with F. adhatodifolia, F. carchiana, F. crassiuscula, F. gigantosyce, F. lapathifolia, F. mutisii, F. oapana (spec. nov.? ined.), F. obtusiuscula, F. piresiana, F. rieberiana and F. yoponensis. Although recent work suggests that subgenus Pharmacosycea is polyphyletic, section Pharmacosycea appears to be monophyletic and is a sister group to the rest of the genus Ficus.
Mysteriously, genetic testing of a single individual of the three fig species F. maxima, F. tonduzii and F. yoponensis, each collected on Barro Colorado Island in...
