Species
+

Ficus auriculata Lour.

Elephant ear fig, Roxburgh Fig, da guo rong, figueira-da-India

Climate known 65 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ficus auriculata is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae. This fig tree is sometimes referred to by the common names Roxburgh fig and Elephant ear tree and is noted for its big and round leaves and edible fruit. It is native to subtropical and tropical Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, South-Central and Southeast China, East and West Himalaya, Hainan, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ficus auriculata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ficus

Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. Many Ficus species are grown for their fruits, though only two species, the common fig and sycamore fig, are cultivated to any extent, with common fig being the type species and by far the most important. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ficus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Moraceae
Described by
Lour.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +14
Wild records
940 in range· 410 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
May, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1736mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Jul 300 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Ficus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1736 mm a year, wettest July at 300 mm, driest January at 20 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 9.8 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Covellia macrophylla (Roxb. & Buch.-Ham. ex Sm.) Miq.; Ficus beipeiensis S.S.Chang; Ficus cochinchinensis Lour.; Ficus hainanensis Merr. & Chun; Ficus hamiltoniana Wall. and 12 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Ficus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1293 mm of 1736 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.2 °C against a yearly mean of 22.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1736 mm a year, wettest July at 300 mm, driest January at 20 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1736 mm a year at the habitat, 1293 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 300 mm, driest January at 20 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 947 mm to 3355 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 9.8 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.8 °C, the absolute minimum 6.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 2.9 °C to 21.7 °C), warmest day 29.0 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 9.8 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Ficus, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jan to 29 °C in May; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1736 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 702 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 6.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°32.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)6.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 25–37RH 58–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 702 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 13–3025 / 14–3128 / 18–3429 / 22–3429 / 23–3328 / 23–3227 / 23–3127 / 23–3127 / 22–3026 / 20–2924 / 17–2922 / 14–29
Night °C13 / 3–2214 / 4–2217 / 7–2420 / 11–2521 / 14–2622 / 16–2522 / 17–2522 / 17–2521 / 15–2419 / 12–2416 / 8–2313 / 4–22
Rain mm20 / 3–7927 / 4–9750 / 16–149106 / 32–221209 / 76–324250 / 96–637300 / 114–824292 / 130–636242 / 124–425160 / 75–35358 / 19–25322 / 8–88
DLI28 / 15–3633 / 17–4037 / 22–4337 / 27–4333 / 29–4230 / 24–3528 / 22–3428 / 23–3328 / 25–3328 / 22–3226 / 19–3125 / 17–33
RH %59 / 54–6758 / 51–6759 / 49–6762 / 51–6865 / 56–7068 / 61–7469 / 63–7669 / 64–7468 / 63–7265 / 59–7063 / 56–6860 / 55–67

Each figure is the median across the 702 grid cells holding the 902 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1568:5763 (11.575, 108.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 702 distinct grid cells holding the 902 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1568:5763 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 11.50_108.125, lapse-corrected +532 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1231 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Tibet, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker20.464, 105.305 · in the densest population, 317 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 940 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 410 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 95 km away. 250 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 38 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 940 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ficus auriculataFicus auriculataFicus auriculataFicus auriculataFicus auriculataFicus auriculataFicus auriculataFicus auriculata

Photographs: (c) Rohit, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ficus auriculata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Biosorption potential of a novel powder, prepared from Ficus auriculata leaves, for sequestration of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solutions
S. Rangabhashiyam, Ekambaram Nakkeeran, N. Anu, N. Selvaraju (2014) · Research on Chemical Intermediates
Ultrasound assisted extraction of gallic acid from Ficus auriculata leaves using green solvent
Thangsei Nengneilhing Baite, Bishnupada Mandal, Mihir Kumar Purkait (2021) · Food and Bioproducts Processing
Phytochemical screening and analysis of antibacterial and antioxidant activity of Ficus auriculata (Lour.) Stem Bark
Bhakta Prasad Gaire, Ramakanta Lamichhane, Chitra B Sunar, Amrita Shilpakar (2011) · Pharmacognosy Journal
Prioritization of cultivated and wild edibles by local people in the Uttaranchal hills of Indian Himalaya
Chandra Prakash Kala (2007) · Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge
Screening of Plant Species Response and Performance for Green Belt Development: Implications for Semi-Urban Ecosystem Restoration
Winifred U. Anake, Faith O. Bayode, Hassana O. Jonathan, Conrad A. Omonhinmin (2022) · Sustainability
Phytochemical and Pharmacological Studies of Ficus Auriculata Lour
Ahlam M. El-Fishawy, Rawia Zayed, Sherif Ahmed Afifi (2011) · Journal of Natural Products
Comparative and variability analysis of different drying methods on phytochemical, antioxidant and phenolic contents of Ficus auriculata Lour. Fruit
Vekasheni Paramanandam, Gayathri Jagadeesan, Kasipandi Muniyandi, Ashwini Lydia Manoharan (2021) · Phytomedicine Plus
The Use of Asian Ficus Species for Restoring Tropical Forest Ecosystems
Cherdsak Kuaraksa, Stephen Elliott (2012) · Restoration Ecology
Molecular Phylogeny of the Ficus auriculata Complex (Moraceae)
Lifang Zhang, Zhen Zhang, Xiaomei Wang, Haiyan Gao (2018) · Phytotaxa
New insights of phenolic compounds from optimized fruit extract of Ficus auriculata
M. Shahinuzzaman, Parul Akhtar, Nowshad Amin, Yunus Ahmed (2021) · Scientific Reports
Lactones from Ficus auriculata and their effects on the proliferation function of primary mouse osteoblasts in vitro
Tai-Ming Shao, Cai‐Juan Zheng, Chang‐Ri Han, Guang‐Ying Chen (2014) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ficus 18 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.