51 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
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- Apr, shaded
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Ficus polita, the heart-leaved fig, is a species of fig that is native to forests of tropical Africa, ranging from Senegal in the west to South Sudan and Kenya in the east, south to Angola and KwaZulu Natal, and to Madagascar.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ficus polita", 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 “hemiepiphytic tree”, “wet tropical”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,235 mm of 1,577 mm) falls in April to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. 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
1,577 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,235 mm of it April to October. Wettest month August at 223 mm, driest month December at 30 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 951 mm to 2,916 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,604 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,577 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: 23 to 35 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 18.8 °C, the absolute minimum 17.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.4 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 14.7 °C to 23.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.1 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 68% 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 -77 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 “hemiepiphytic 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, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 27 °C in Jul and Aug to 31 °C in Jan, Feb and Mar; mean nightly low from 21 °C in Aug to 24 °C in Mar and Apr. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 1,577 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 131 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 17.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 31 / 26–34 | 31 / 27–35 | 31 / 26–36 | 30 / 25–34 | 29 / 23–32 | 28 / 22–30 | 27 / 21–29 | 27 / 22–29 | 28 / 22–29 | 29 / 23–31 | 30 / 24–33 | 30 / 25–33 |
| Night °C | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 24 / 19–25 | 24 / 18–25 | 23 / 16–25 | 22 / 14–24 | 22 / 14–23 | 21 / 15–23 | 22 / 16–23 | 22 / 17–24 | 22 / 18–24 | 23 / 18–24 |
| Rain mm | 31 / 3–274 | 54 / 8–253 | 115 / 38–183 | 133 / 57–209 | 159 / 38–294 | 179 / 22–361 | 197 / 27–487 | 223 / 35–385 | 197 / 48–460 | 147 / 73–358 | 112 / 13–159 | 30 / 4–175 |
| DLI | 35 / 32–39 | 35 / 33–40 | 32 / 31–40 | 30 / 27–38 | 28 / 23–35 | 24 / 20–32 | 23 / 21–32 | 25 / 23–34 | 29 / 24–37 | 32 / 25–40 | 34 / 29–41 | 35 / 31–39 |
| RH % | 63 / 42–67 | 64 / 44–67 | 65 / 51–67 | 64 / 59–68 | 65 / 59–69 | 67 / 57–70 | 67 / 57–70 | 68 / 58–70 | 68 / 59–70 | 66 / 60–71 | 65 / 55–69 | 64 / 47–67 |
Records on both sides of the equator: the 25 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 131 cells that remain: the 43 at least 10° south and the 88 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Margaret Burger, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
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Brillantaisia lamium Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Bárbara VerdinhaOther Ficus 157 in the reference
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Ficus altissima False banyan Photo: CC BY, Jaro Guzinski
Ficus americana Jamaican cherry fig Photo: CC BY, Guillaume Delaitre
Ficus ampelos Moraceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿
Ficus amplissima Indian Bat Fig Photo: CC BY, rajesh rocky
Ficus annulata Moraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ong Jyh Seng
Ficus arnottiana Indian Rock Fig Photo: CC BY, rajesh rocky
Ficus aspera Mosaic fig Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan Shebs
Ficus aurea Florida strangler Photo: CC BY, Tom Field
Ficus auriculata Roxburgh fig Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta Roy
Ficus barteri Moraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ji-Elle
Ficus benghalensis Indian banyan Photo: CC BY, Sayee Girdhari all 158 ›Names & registers
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 17 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (15 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -12.50_49.375, lapse-corrected -77 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.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 rulescommons answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.