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giant Ficus microcarpa on Merritt Island (central Florida)


Eric in Orlando

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Saturday I found this Ficus microcarpa specimen growing on Merritt Island on the north end of Tropical Trail. It is near the ghost town of Courtenay which is east of Titusville, just south of Kennedy Space Center. It is growing by an 1880's house. This area is still semi rural but obviously a nice microclimate as there are coconuts with little damage, mango groves, etc. This is one of the biggest Ficus microcarpa I have seen anywhere.

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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That tree is absolutely beautiful.

  • Upvote 1

Rock Ridge Ranch

South Escondido

5 miles ENE Rancho Bernardo

33.06N 117W, Elevation 971 Feet

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Awesome, thanks for sharing! I just planted a Ficus microcarpa  'moclame', hopefully one day it will look like that. 

Westchase | 9b 10a  ◆  Nokomis | 10a  ◆  St. Petersburg | 10a 10b 

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23 hours ago, RedRabbit said:

Awesome, thanks for sharing! I just planted a Ficus microcarpa  'moclame', hopefully one day it will look like that. 

I think 'Moclame' is another dwarf/semi dwarf cultivar like 'Green Island' and 'Green Gem'. I have seen them showing up in local box store nurseries. I have planted a couple out to see what they do.

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Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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32 minutes ago, Eric in Orlando said:

I think 'Moclame' is another dwarf/semi dwarf cultivar like 'Green Island' and 'Green Gem'. I have seen them showing up in local box store nurseries. I have planted a couple out to see what they do.

Thanks! I hope it isn't a dwarf, but it is the only microcarpa I could find locally. We'll just have to wait and see what happens I guess. It's too bad more varieties of Ficus aren't available.

Westchase | 9b 10a  ◆  Nokomis | 10a  ◆  St. Petersburg | 10a 10b 

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That's a big F. microcarpa. I've found many nice ones about one mile from my house (Lake Placid) and many up in Sebring. I dug up a F. microcarpa I found growing on a vacant lot in town and planted it on my property back around 2005. It grew to over 20 feet tall, then got frozen to the ground in 2010. It now about 15 feet high, but with all kinds of trunks. Also, I had a F. microcarpa come up on its own back in a wooded area of my property. There are no F. microcarpa in my neighbor hood that I know of. The closest ones are about a mile away, maybe slightly farther. Years ago I first thought it might be a Dahoon holly, but it's definitely a Ficus microcarpa.

All the older, bigger F. microcarpa trees in my area are found around the lakes, where the climate is zone 10. Also, there is an old Ficus microcarpa by the Sebring Sheriff's Office. I was told it was planted back in the 1930s (photo 1). There's a nice F. microcarpa just several blocks from the Sebring Sheriff's Office (photo 2)

 

f. micro 4.jpg

f. micro. clos.jpg

  • Upvote 4

Mad about palms

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At the girls 4-H camp, about 5 miles N.W. of my place there's many Ficus microcarpa trees growing, plus some Ficus elastica trees. I was told by the camp's director these trees were all planted back in the early 1950s when the camp was being established. Below are some photos I took back in 2011 when the camp had an open house. They also had  large Hibiscus tiliaceus tree there, and the director allowed me to take some cuttings from it. Today I have three flowering H. tiliaceus trees from those cuttings. The trees are 25-30 feet tall now, except for the one that got blown over by Hurricane Irma. I had to cut it off, and it's now growing on its side.  Below are some of the photos I took of the 4-H camp ficus trees.

Ficus microcarpa 1a.jpg

Ficus microcarpa 1b.jpg

Ficus microcarpa.jpg

Ficus microcarpa 1c.jpg

  • Upvote 6

Mad about palms

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Below are two photos of a huge Ficus elastica tree growing at the girls 4-H camp (Camp Cloverleaf).  The second photos indicated by the two red arrows shows the limits of the spread of this tree.

Ficus elastica.jpg

Ficus elastica limits.jpg

  • Upvote 3

Mad about palms

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Walt, those are some awesome specimens!

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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4 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

I think 'Moclame' is another dwarf/semi dwarf cultivar like 'Green Island' and 'Green Gem'. I have seen them showing up in local box store nurseries. I have planted a couple out to see what they do.

I meant 'Green Island' and 'Green Mound' are the dwarf cultivars. 'Green Gem' grows large, it is resistant to the thrips that damage the new growth in SoFL.

 

 

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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In June of 2011 when I visited the 4-H camp, the director (of 26 years there) took me inside one of the buildings and showed me some blown up framed wall photos of the camp when it was first started. I think that was in 1951. He told me at that time, many species of exotic trees were brought up from south Florida, which were planted throughout the camp, and that's where the Ficus microcarpa and Ficus elastica came from originally.  Seems they went a little bit overboard with all the Ficus microcarpa trees, as they are all over the camp. Below are some more photos I took the day I toured the camp in June of 2011.

Camp Cloverleaf.jpg

100_6581.jpg

100_6589.jpg

100_6590.jpg

  • Upvote 3

Mad about palms

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The second photo is a Hibiscus tiliaceus tree. I took cuttings from this tree and started three trees. They are fast growers and started flowering for me two years ago.

F. microcarpa.jpg

Hibiscus tiliceus.jpg

Royal palm, lake Francis.jpg

  • Upvote 3

Mad about palms

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On 7/30/2018, 9:25:36, Eric in Orlando said:

DSC_3687.JPG

That is gorgeous! May need to take a little drive and find this guy! 

When I looked this species up it came up and a noxious and invasive ‘weed’! That’s the coolest looking weed I’ve ever seen! ;)

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2 hours ago, CB Lisa said:

That is gorgeous! May need to take a little drive and find this guy! 

When I looked this species up it came up and a noxious and invasive ‘weed’! That’s the coolest looking weed I’ve ever seen! ;)

Lisa,

 

It is on N. Tropical Trail just south of Crisafulli Rd., just south of the Sams House historic homestead. Its at the SE corner of where Crisafulli Road "T's" into N. Tropical Trail.

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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FIcus trees are a favorite of mine. I think I have 15 species of them now. Most are still small, although my two F. altissima 'variegata' are getting big. My biggest F. altissima is dropping leaves heavily now, pushing out new leaves. I just mowed my yard this morning around this tree, and now it's covered with leaves again.My latest acquisition is a 3 gallon Ficus benghalensis from the Thomas Edison tree a palm buddy gave me. I haven't planted it in the ground yet. I'm still trying to decide just where to plant it.

In October of 2005 I drove down to Clewiston, Florida, to take some photos. I spotted these two ficus trees (photo 1), but I don't know the species. Maybe elastica, I don't know It didn't have a lot of aerial and subsidiary roots.

Photo 2 shows the base of another ficus tree (not associated with those in photo 1). I don't know why I don't have a photo showing the overall tree.

Clewiston ficus tree.JPG

Clewiston ficus tree base.JPG

  • Upvote 2

Mad about palms

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6 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

Lisa,

 

It is on N. Tropical Trail just south of Crisafulli Rd., just south of the Sams House historic homestead. Its at the SE corner of where Crisafulli Road "T's" into N. Tropical Trail.

Thank you very much for the specifics, Eric! I love driving around different areas over here (of course, to look at plants and landscapes!) but have never ventured up that part of Tropical Trail! Will definitely go check that out! 

Overdue to get over to renew my Leu membership and check out how things are growing! Thank you for the fabulous and inspiring job you do giving the public so many incredible plants to see and keep track of!

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Great things from all on another outstanding post originated by Eric!

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What you look for is what is looking

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15 years ago I took this photo of a Ficus elastica growing on Lakeview Drive in Sebring. The tree has since been removed. Why a home owner would plant a tree like this so close to the house is beyond me.

Lake effect rubber tree.JPG

Mad about palms

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  • 2 weeks later...

Two Ficus lyrata (fiddle leaf fig) trees in Sun 'N' Lakes subdivision in Lake Placid, Florida. These are the two biggest I've found in Highlands County.

Fiddle leaf fig (Ficus lyrata) - Copy.JPG

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Mad about palms

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I saw a giant Ficus lyrata just south of Kennedy Space Center, just about the largest I have seen. Mature Ficus lyrata are amazing looking.

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was going through my digital photo albums and ran across two pics I took back in July of 2006. The pics below show two Ficus lyrata trees growing a few miles southeast of Avon Park, Florida. I think these are the tallest I've ever seen in my life, although I haven't seen all that many. Still, these are big ones. A friend of mine took me up there to show me something else (a palm or special tree, etc.), and I happened to see these two trees. The owner wasn't around. I wish the owner was around as I would have been interested in who and when planted the trees.

Ficus  lyrata near Avon Park.jpg

Ficus lyrata Avon Park.jpg

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Mad about palms

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