The Lowland Ficus dammaropsis

Mod Edit: This discussion was started in another thread. I thought I would give it a thread of its own.

YIPPEE I have a few nice pics to wet your ginormous leaf appetite ...
its the lowland Dammorpsis ..??? pity cause its impossible to propagate ..
 
Seeds for this enormous tree were brought in from PNG many years ago ..
sadly I only had a dinky little toy camera when I took the first lot of pics .
It survived a recent severe cyclone , but is way to large to get a decent pic. Had to rope the branch to pull it down to get this pic. Flowers are very large and different to the highland dammaropsis . Normal dammaropsis and a mate for scale .. pic taken at Bundaberg botanic Garden
 

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Darn,

It looks like there's another tree I need to get before I can truly be happy. :D

Thanks for the pics.

So as I understand it, the differences from the more common dammaropsis are:
- A different flower
- Bigger leaves
- Bigger tree
- Propagation can not be done with cuttings.
- And I would assume it may be more tender as well???

So, anyone know how I can get one? And should I assume it is considered as the same species?
 
What is the noticeable difference between the 2, Michael, if you don't happen to see them side by side? I have one ficus dammaropsis, and I am just wondering which one I have.

Regards, Ari :)
 
Ari , I think Terry would have the only one in cultivation .. it is a massive tree , maybe 30m tall now . Foliage is so high up and crowded with other trees its very hard to get a good picture .. I took some about a year after the cyclone hit , and its not worth posting . I will visit and have a chat to Terry and try and find out some collection details .
I do have a photo of Peter & Pirrie Sargent , both nearly completely covered by a leaf when this tree was only about 4m high.
I am pretty certain Terry collected in real lowland conditions so it would not survive anywhere on mainland USA .. The highlland one is a much smaller growing sp. with more quilting ,, as the last pic with Steve ..
 
Yes.. I think I have the 'normal' variety then. It would've been better to have to lowland one here in Darwin... but I am glad I have one anyway. I bet they don't set seeds in Cairns??

Regards, Ari :)
 
Well, here are pics of the two 'Dammaropsis' I have acquired. The larger leaf one has red veins and is about five feet tall now. Each time it sprouts a new leaf, the leaf is bigger. Presently the newest leaves are pushing three feet. The smaller plant in a pot has white veins and even when it gets bigger, I think the leaves will be maybe a foot long or so. I've seen Gary LeVine's Dammaropsis and it looks like the 'normal' one pictured above. The leaves are more crinkly and the size of the leaves are somewhere between my large-leaf one and my small-leaf one.

So quite honestly, I'm not sure that either one I have is a Ficus dammaropsis. I guess time will tell.

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I have the one with red veins and throws the orangey colored new leaf. It's in full all day sun here in SoCal and shows a wrinkly leaf. But Paul has one from the same batch in more shade and the leaf is flatter and glossier. One thing I've noticed about these is that you must pot them up every few months no matter what or they'll start to go into decline. I had a friend loose one to this lesson. Best case scenerio is just get it into the ground. The roots don't like to be contained.

The pics below were taken last September. It's since doubled in size over winter and has about 8 branches of various lengths. It's also fruiting profusely. It's in a large depression so I can keep it very well watered and it seems to like that a lot.
 

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Matty,

Thanks to your advice, I got mine in the ground last month.

That's crazy you say yours has grown that much, and is fruiting profusely. I'm calling you on that, bra. Where's the pic. :)
 
Ok here's some pics from today. You can see the D. leptocheilos coming along nicely in the background. I think they're ready for butter and jam.
 

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More of the Ficus. Don't let the dry surroundings fool you. It's kept nice and wet and as you can see it's heavily mulched. I can run a hose at full blast and it takes 5 minutes to fill up the basin. It's almost time to remove the rabbit cage. They haven't touched this plant even though the leaves hang over. I just feared that they would chomp it to the ground when the stem was too thin. I'm gonna try and ground layer this plant by scratching the branching stems and bending them over and burying them at the scratches. Hopefully I can get roots to form and root out at the same time, before cutting the branch free from the mother. From what I've heard it's easy to get roots to form from air layering, but it's the cut and transfer to medium and trying to get them to form roots into soil after that is the hard part. Anyone got any tips for me?
 

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Matty,

I don't have any advice for you per se, but I would assume you know all the logical stuff to do.

Besides, the way things are growing for you, I'll be asking advice from you soon. Wait, I already do. :)
 
From what is said about the larger form, this must be one of the largest leaf plants (other than palms) in the world. Comparable to a specie of Cocoloba that is found down in Brazil and is still un-named as far as I know. That leaf can be 6' long by 4-5' wide.


F. damm. can be propagated by air layers and cuttings. Like stated earlier, sometimes air layers can be difficult to transplant and get established. Fantastic tree though.
 
Toko or anyone else,

Is that species of Cocoloba mentioned above in cultivation? I have not heard of it, and will have to do a Google. Sounds like a plant I would like to get my hands on.
 
Toko or anyone else,

Is that species of Cocoloba mentioned above in cultivation? I have not heard of it, and will have to do a Google. Sounds like a plant I would like to get my hands on.



No, it's certainly not in cultivation. I know someone down in Brazil and I hope someday this friend can help me some with finding or taking me to it's origin. How exciting this could be to be able to get just a picture of it!
 
Hey Mr. Thug Man,

Did you read the thread carefully? We are talking about a lowland form of Dammaropsis that has much bigger leaves, and larger and different flowers. (Check Post #3 above). I don't know anything about this particular form other than what I just read here, but if you think you have it, that would be very interesting.

I am aware of a green form which looks like what Matty was posting above, and a redder form. My small one, posted below, is the redder one with red veins and a reddish new leaf. The younger leaves are much redder than this almost mature leaf.
 

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Hey Mr. Thug Man,

Did you read the thread carefully? We are talking about a lowland form of Dammaropsis that has much bigger leaves, and larger and different flowers. (Check Post #3 above). I don't know anything about this particular form other than what I just read here, but if you think you have it, that would be very interesting.

I am aware of a green form which looks like what Matty was posting above, and a redder form. My small one, posted below, is the redder one with red veins and a reddish new leaf. The younger leaves are much redder than this almost mature leaf.

Hey Dean,

Is this the one that JD Anderson has at the Fallbrook Nursery?
 
Clark,

Peter is a tropical tree expert. Especially those with large leaves. And he says in Post #6 above that "I've never seen that form over on this side of the world."

So I am assuming nobody has it in this hemisphere, and unlikely that it would pop up in SoCal. But if anyone knows differently, I would like to be the first to know. I haven't seen Jerry's, but I have a feeling I would know about it if he had it. I'll ask next time we talk.
 
Ron,
The smaller leafed plant looks like a Ficus I bought from Caldwell Nursery in Texas as Ficus dammaropsis. Does it have purple under the leaves? Whatever I got was a very cool ficus, but certainly not dammaropsis. My only complaint about it was that they all died here (one at my house, one at Gary Levine's, and one at Steve Huston's, actually Steve's may still be struggling along)...other than that minor issue it's a cool plant. Has yours made it through a winter outside?

I have one like Matty's, which seems different than some of the earlier SoCal batches (like Jerry Andersen and Ron Lawyer's plants). It grows faster and generally looks better through the winter as far as I can tell. And by the way, mine is twice as big as Matty's because I put it from a 4" pot to a 5g and then planted it in the ground 5 months later (completely rooted out in the 5g). Do not leave them in a pot!

Matt
 
Matt,

I'll take some recent pics of mine next time it opens a new leaf. It has a bronze/reddish colored new leaf and it has red veins like the one Ron posted. Even more so. Matty's looks like it doesn't have any red in the veins at all. Is that so? And is does the new leaf have any color?

I would like to find one like you mentioned with the purple underneath.
 
Dean,
Caldwell nursery has a 3g plant listed right now (the one with the purple under the leaf). My order from them was well packaged and arrived in good shape. Go to www.caldwellhort.com click on "collectors corner" and go to page 2.

Matt
 
DeanO,
Mine does open very bright orangey/red new leaves. The veins are red also but seem to fade to green after a while. Mine is in full, all day sun, but I think it's the same as Ron's red veined one pictured above, from what I remember. Matt's and mine are from the same batch that Jeff White was selling last year.
 
Thanks Matty,

I guess there's just that one type then. I was thinking there was a "green one" and a "red one." But I guess it's just exposure.

But I am still assuming there is the "Lowland" type with the bigger leaves that started this whole topic. It may not be suitable for SoCal, but I would like to get my hands on one if they were only available. Peter made it sound like it might be hard to get.
 
Dean, the green and red one is what some in SoCal are referring to the two types seen here. The green and more common have the green fruit and green leaf sheath. The red form, red fruit and red leaf sheath. Ron and I know where there is a red form. We will have to be tortured to tell you. But it is harder then hell to air layer. Much harder then green form. other then that, they are the same. Nothing like the difference found in the plant Matt in SD is referring to.

OK, enough. The red form is at the house a few doors down from Mardy's place. You had to have seen it.
 
Alright then,

Green form = reddish veins and reddish new leaf

Red form = red fruit and red leaf sheath

Does the Red Form have red veins and reddish new leaf as well?

And thanks for the info. You know how I feel about torture. :)
 
I would think so. That lowland form is pretty rare from what I have heard. But the "green" highland form apparently can have a reddish new leaf, and red veins. I'll try and get some shots of mine. It has a few new red leafs right now, I think.
 
It is good to see you are interested in trees now, Dean. I am sure between all of us, your wanted list WILL get longer soon.

Me? I love trees... I think even more than palms (shhh.. don't tell anyone at Palmtalk...).

I have 2 of these trees... they don't seem to like the sun in Darwin though. Now, they are growing better with protection from Cassia javanica & sugar canes.

Regards, Ari :)
 
You can not have a balanced garden without trees. Flowering trees add seasonal color on a grand scale that no other plants can. Just my opinion.
 
The other thing about balance is the importance in terms of pest and pathogen maintenance. If you monoculture a place, you are just asking for trouble. By having all kinds of different plants and trees, it would be impossible to have an infestation of something that would kill everything.

So, heaven forbid, if something would arrive that killed palms, hopefully some species would be immune, and if not, at least you would still have some kind of garden.

It even makes it difficult for something to take hold enough to become a problem. I'm guessing that it also makes for a more balanced population of differing beneficial insects, birds, and other wildlife that keep things in check.

Plus it just looks cool. :)

Ari --- don't worry, your secret is safe with me. :)
 
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