Ficus sycomorusL.

Sycomoresycamore fig

WFO wfo-0000690537 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ficus sycomorus, photographed by Ryan Donnelly
fig. a Ryan Donnelly, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-25 / obs. 201720003

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
190372
Filed as
Ficus sycomorus subsp. gnaphalocarpa (Miq.) C.C.Berg
Det. by
C. T. Imada 1997-01-01
Collected
C. R. Annable 1997-04-23
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 46 botanical countries

Regions where Ficus sycomorus is native: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cape Verde, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen AlgeriaAngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicChadCongoDjiboutiDR CongoEgyptEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweOmanSaudi ArabiaYemen Cape VerdeComoros
Native distribution of Ficus sycomorus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Angola ANG
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cape Verde CVI
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Comoros COM
Congo CON
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Saudi Arabia SAU
Yemen YEM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 772 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.0 °C 11.5 °C 17.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.5 °C 30.6 °C 34.4 °C
Annual rainfall 73 mm 642 mm 1,167 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 1 mm 25 mm 140 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 772 research-grade observations of Ficus sycomorus that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 21 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Ficus chanas Forssk.
  • Ficus cocculifolia Baker
  • Ficus cocculifolia subsp. sakalavarum (Baker) H.Perrier & Leandri
  • Ficus cocculifolia var. sakalavarum (Baker) H.Perrier
  • Ficus comorensis Warb.
  • Ficus damarensis Engl.
  • Ficus gnaphalocarpa (Miq.) Steud. ex Miq.
  • Ficus integrifolia Sim
  • Ficus sakalavarum Baker
  • Ficus scabra Sim
  • Ficus sycomorus subsp. gnaphalocarpa (Miq.) C.C.Berg
  • Ficus sycomorus var. alnea Hiern
  • Ficus sycomorus var. polybotrya Hiern
  • Ficus sycomorus var. prodigiosa Welw.
  • Ficus trachyphylla (Miq.) Miq.
  • Ficus trachyphylla Fenzl
  • Sycomorus antiquorum Gasp.
  • Sycomorus gnaphalocarpus Miq.
  • Sycomorus rigida Miq.
  • Sycomorus trachyphylla Miq.
  • Sycomorus trachyphyllus Miq.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.