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Ficus capreifolia; photograph (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-11-05

Ficus capreifolia Delile

River Sandpaper Fig; Riverine Sandpaper Fig; Rough-Leaved Fig; Rough-Leaved Fig Tree

Moraceae · Benin, Burkina +27 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Ficus capreifolia, photograph (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ficus capreifolia, photograph (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ficus capreifolia, photograph (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ficus capreifolia, photograph (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ficus capreifolia, photograph (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ficus capreifolia, photograph (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY) 29 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
9.3°C
Record low 5.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Nov at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
762mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes November to March (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

The river sandpaper fig (Ficus capreifolia) is a fig shrub or small tree of the western and eastern Afrotropics, from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east and south to KwaZulu-Natal. It is typically found around pans or flood plains, or along riparian fringes in tropical or subtropical savanna regions, but is absent from the tropical rainforest zone. Despite its regular scrambling habit it may attain a height of 7 to 10 m (23 to 33 ft).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ficus capreifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ficus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Ficus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “seasonally dry tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (442 mm of 615 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.9 °C against a yearly mean of 23.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

615 mm in the median year at the habitat, 442 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 114 mm, driest month July at 9 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 483 mm to 1,219 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 762 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 615 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 9.3 °C, the absolute minimum 5.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 8.7 °C to 22.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.2 °C in November (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -184 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Ficus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “seasonally dry tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ficus capreifolia through the yearWarmest month November, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 12.2 °C; 615 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°42.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER5.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 26–38RH 55–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 74 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 28–3530 / 28–3630 / 28–3629 / 26–3427 / 25–3225 / 22–3025 / 22–2928 / 24–2929 / 27–3231 / 27–3432 / 28–3431 / 28–34
Night °C20 / 19–2321 / 19–2321 / 18–2418 / 16–2415 / 13–2413 / 10–2312 / 9–2214 / 11–2217 / 14–2219 / 16–2320 / 18–2320 / 19–23
Rain mm114 / 4–21299 / 8–19876 / 39–12549 / 19–11616 / 2–14210 / 1–1719 / 0–19314 / 0–21322 / 2–19953 / 12–12160 / 10–10893 / 4–163
DLI38 / 35–4138 / 35–4136 / 32–4034 / 28–3831 / 25–3428 / 23–3126 / 24–3229 / 25–3733 / 27–4335 / 30–4537 / 33–4438 / 33–43
RH %58 / 44–6258 / 46–6359 / 53–6359 / 50–6357 / 45–6556 / 45–6855 / 44–6955 / 41–6955 / 39–6956 / 42–6757 / 49–6258 / 47–63

Records on both sides of the equator: the 21 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 74 cells that remain: the 50 at least 10° south and the 24 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 74 grid cells holding the 86 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2249:4218 (-22.475, 30.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 74 distinct grid cells holding 86 of the 116 in-range records on the southern side of the equator (21 cells poleward of 10° north, 50 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2249:4218 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -22.50_30.625, lapse-corrected -184 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 346 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBenin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker7.226, 2.148 · in the densest population, 140 records (47% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 297 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 86 of them in the land cells it reads, of 116 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 251 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 6 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 181 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 297 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ficus capreifolia, photograph 1did not loadFicus capreifolia, photograph 2did not loadFicus capreifolia, photograph 3did not loadFicus capreifolia, photograph 4did not loadFicus capreifolia, photograph 5did not loadFicus capreifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Capparis tomentosa Capparis tomentosa African caper Photo: CC0, author not statedStrychnos decussata Strychnos decussata Cape-Teak Photo: CC0, author not statedCombretum celastroides Combretum celastroides Jesse-bush Combretum Photo: CC BY, Mathew ReesAfzelia quanzensis Afzelia quanzensis Pod mahogany Photo: CC0, author not statedAloe vaombe Aloe vaombe Malagasy Tree Aloe Photo: CC BY, amantedarmaninEuphorbia confinalis Euphorbia confinalis Lebombo Naboom Photo: CC BY, Patrick Jackson

Other Ficus 157 in the reference

Ficus abutilifolia Ficus abutilifolia Large-leaved Rock Fig Photo: CC0, author not statedFicus altissima Ficus altissima False banyan Photo: CC BY, Jaro GuzinskiFicus americana Ficus americana Jamaican cherry fig Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreFicus ampelos Ficus ampelos Moraceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Ficus amplissima Ficus amplissima Indian Bat Fig Photo: CC BY, rajesh rockyFicus annulata Ficus annulata Moraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ong Jyh SengFicus arnottiana Ficus arnottiana Indian Rock Fig Photo: CC BY, rajesh rockyFicus aspera Ficus aspera Mosaic fig Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan ShebsFicus aurea Ficus aurea Florida strangler Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldFicus auriculata Ficus auriculata Roxburgh fig Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoyFicus barteri Ficus barteri Moraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ji-ElleFicus benghalensis Ficus benghalensis Indian banyan Photo: CC BY, Sayee Girdhari all 158 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Ficus antithetophylla; Ficus capreifolia var. ovalifolia; Ficus capreifolia var. ovatifolia; Ficus palustris; Ficus paolii and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Moraceae
Described by
Delile
Native to
Benin, Burkina, The Gambia +26
Wild records
297 in range · 251 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -22.50_30.625, lapse-corrected -184 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 43 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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