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Ficus opposita; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-27

Ficus opposita Miq.

Sweet sandpaper fig; Figwood; Sweet fig; Watery fig

Moraceae · Jawa, New Guinea +1 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Ficus opposita, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedFicus opposita, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedFicus opposita, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ficus opposita, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ficus opposita, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Ficus opposita, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 83 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.3°C
Record low 8.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,003mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–43DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  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 May to September (November to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Ficus opposita is one of several fig species commonly known as sandpaper figs. Other common names include sweet sandpaper fig, sweet fig and the ambiguous "figwood" and "watery fig". It is native to New Guinea, the Indonesian island of Java, and to Queensland in Australia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ficus opposita", 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”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (705 mm of 982 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.9 °C against a yearly mean of 22.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

982 mm in the median year at the habitat, 705 mm of it November to March. Wettest month February at 192 mm, driest month September at 24 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 671 mm to 1,880 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,003 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 982 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 43 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.3 °C, the absolute minimum 8.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 8.9 °C to 22.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.7 °C in January and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.3 °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: 56 to 63% 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 -55 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”, “wet 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ficus opposita through the yearWarmest months January and December, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 13.8 °C; 982 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, southern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°32.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–43RH 56–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 485 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 °C30 / 28–3329 / 27–3229 / 26–3127 / 25–3125 / 22–3022 / 20–2822 / 19–2723 / 20–2926 / 23–3128 / 25–3429 / 26–3430 / 27–34
Night °C23 / 20–2623 / 20–2622 / 19–2620 / 16–2518 / 13–2515 / 10–2314 / 9–2215 / 10–2217 / 12–2419 / 15–2521 / 17–2623 / 19–26
Rain mm185 / 94–388192 / 111–405115 / 56–36170 / 35–19750 / 14–10637 / 6–6328 / 4–4627 / 2–4124 / 3–4141 / 17–7080 / 60–116133 / 98–239
DLI40 / 35–4336 / 34–3935 / 32–3831 / 28–3626 / 23–3325 / 21–3026 / 23–3231 / 28–3738 / 35–4342 / 39–4643 / 40–4642 / 39–45
RH %61 / 57–6663 / 58–6761 / 55–6660 / 54–6559 / 54–6457 / 53–6356 / 52–6356 / 50–6257 / 49–6258 / 50–6359 / 53–6460 / 55–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 485 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (627 records in those cells; 32 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 2228:6584 (-21.425, 149.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.9 °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 485 distinct grid cells holding 627 of the 685 in-range records (32 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2228:6584 (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 -21.50_149.375, lapse-corrected -55 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 30 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.
NativeJawa, New Guinea, Queensland · 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 marker-23.921, 151.336 · in the densest population, 632 records (70% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 902 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 627 of them in the land cells it reads, of 685 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 735 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 44 km away. 831 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 217 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 902 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 opposita, photograph 1did not loadFicus opposita, photograph 2did not loadFicus opposita, photograph 3did not loadFicus opposita, photograph 4did not loadFicus opposita, photograph 5did not loadFicus opposita, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3).

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

Eucalyptus platyphylla Eucalyptus platyphylla Poplar gum Photo: CC0, author not statedSannantha papillosa Sannantha papillosa Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Royal Botanic Gardens, KewPlanchonella pohlmaniana Planchonella pohlmaniana Yellow Boxwood Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyDiplatia furcata Diplatia furcata Bottlebrush Mistletoe Photo: CC BY, Tony van Kampen Abelmoschus rhodopetalus Malvaceae Acacia flavescens Acacia flavescens Red Wattle Photo: CC0, author not stated

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 aculeata var. indecora; Ficus aculeata var. micracantha; Ficus androbrota; Ficus apolepomena; Ficus beckleri and 14 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Ficus aculeata: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Moraceae
Described by
Miq.
Native to
Jawa, New Guinea, Queensland
Wild records
902 in range · 735 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; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a zoo; 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 -21.50_149.375, lapse-corrected -55 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 2026-10-22
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 32 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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