[F. nitida sensu auct., non Thunb.; F. retusa sensu Variable in habit, often epiphytic, Sub- auct., non l.] Chinese or Malayan banyan Variable in habit, often epiphytic, Subscandent shrubs when young, in maturity spreading evergreen trees with large branches and numerous aerial roots hanging from the trunk and branches, these sometimes reaching the soil to form pillarlike roots. Leaves variable, coriaceous, oblong, elliptic to broadly elliptic or obo- vate, usually 5-8 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, glabrous, margins entire, petioles 0.6-2 cm long. Synconia sessile, arising among or just below the leaves, depressed-globose, 6-10mm in diameter, subtended by 3 broadly ovate, ± persistent bracts. [2n = 24?] Native from Ceylon to India, southern China, Ryukyu Islands, Australia, and New Caledonia; in Hawaii cultivated and now naturalized primarily in urban areas and highly disturbed, low elevation habitats, at least on 0‘ahu, Maui, and Hawai‘i, but probably on all of the main islands. Cultivated at least since the early 1900s, but it could not have become naturalized prior to 1938 when the pollinating wasp was introduced. —Plate 130.
The syconia are bird dispersed, and small shrubby plants of this species are extremely common in cracks of walls or similar places as epiphytes. It is not presently known how often plants reach maturity in nonurban areas.