Thanks for the pics Walt. That's very interesting to see the smaller stature of the plant on the left in the first photo. My seedlings (much smaller than yours) more closely resemble that plant. The seeds were sent to me by a friend of a friend in Buenos Aires and it's possible that he collected seeds from more than one tree so there is a possibility that we have two separate species.

Another theory I have is that because this fig (like many others) can start life as a epiphyte, eventually strangling its host and becoming a tree in its own right, is there a possibility that there are both juvenile and adult growth forms? The plant on the left has a less upright habit but the leaves look similar, just smaller.

Ben - I believe F. luschnathiana does become banyan-like in adulthood. In Walt's second photo you can start to see the aerial roots at the bottom of the trunk.

Josh76: I need to take a better look at the questionable ficus (smaller one on left in my photo). I don't think it has a single stem, or it either has lots of branches. For some reason it was different than the others right from the start. I think I even mentioned this in this thread last year. I will take a look at it again today and try to get a close up photo showing better detail and post it.

Here's two close ups of the ficus in question. Note that the main leader branched while it was very short, as opposed to the other ones that grew much taller before they started to branch. Yet, the leaves look the same, so I guess it's just some kind of variation. I plan on pot growing this ficus in a pot until it gets much bigger before I will plant it out. That may be a year or two down the road.

Looks like avocados Walt! Seriously though, is luschanthiana a banyan type fig? I don't know much about this one except its from Argentina.

Bennz: I can say for a fact they are not avocado trees (I've sprouted large avocado seeds)! The seeds were tiny, like ficus seed are. I had no idea ficus seeds were so small until I ordered some Ficus benghalensis seeds, then realized I'd better not sneeze while holding them!

Sorry Walt, I had no intention of suggesting your id was mistaken, merely noting the very superficial resemblance to avocado foliage (I have a lot of avocado trees too). Interesting that the seeds are so small, certainly there is a lot of variation in seed size with Ficus. In NZ rubiginosa has 1,500,000 viable seeds per kg! By contrast F. columnaris (macrophylla) seed is huge. Mild sneezing is ok when working with columnaris seed!

How long did you wait for germination? I have had F. columnaris seed germinate almost 3 years after sowing, some ficus can take a while. I suspect some people actually throw out their seed trays before germination is even half way through. Palms are worse of course, I just got another sprout from Parajubaea sunkha seed I imported and sowed in 1999!

How fast is the comparative growth rate between benghalensis and rubiginosa for you? I'm guessing in your semi-tropical climate they would be similar, or perhaps the rubiginosa a little slower? By contrast here in mild oceanic temperate, benghalensis are very slow. I've got a 15 year old tree that is only about 10 feet tall. My best columnaris was that size before it's 3rd birthday, and rubiginosa have similar growth rates in good sites.

Looks like avocados Walt! Seriously though, is luschanthiana a banyan type fig? I don't know much about this one except its from Argentina.

Bennz: I can say for a fact they are not avocado trees (I've sprouted large avocado seeds)! The seeds were tiny, like ficus seed are. I had no idea ficus seeds were so small until I ordered some Ficus benghalensis seeds, then realized I'd better not sneeze while holding them!

Sorry Walt, I had no intention of suggesting your id was mistaken, merely noting the very superficial resemblance to avocado foliage (I have a lot of avocado trees too). Interesting that the seeds are so small, certainly there is a lot of variation in seed size with Ficus. In NZ rubiginosa has 1,500,000 viable seeds per kg! By contrast F. columnaris (macrophylla) seed is huge. Mild sneezing is ok when working with columnaris seed!

How long did you wait for germination? I have had F. columnaris seed germinate almost 3 years after sowing, some ficus can take a while. I suspect some people actually throw out their seed trays before germination is even half way through. Palms are worse of course, I just got another sprout from Parajubaea sunkha seed I imported and sowed in 1999!

How fast is the comparative growth rate between benghalensis and rubiginosa for you? I'm guessing in your semi-tropical climate they would be similar, or perhaps the rubiginosa a little slower? By contrast here in mild oceanic temperate, benghalensis are very slow. I've got a 15 year old tree that is only about 10 feet tall. My best columnaris was that size before it's 3rd birthday, and rubiginosa have similar growth rates in good sites.

Bennz: No, I knew what you meant about the similarity of the leaves, and didn't take it wrongly. I agree with you, the leaves do look similar to avocado leaves. I was just trying to emphasize the size difference of my F. rubiginosa seeds and avocado seeds.

I didn't know ficus species seeds varied notably in size. The only ficus seeds I am familiar with are rrubinginosa, luschnathiana, and benghalensis. All three are so very small.

As far as germination time, the rubinginosa germinated the fastest, but I don't recall now the time in days. I germinated them in the house over the winter and in a south facing window (where I get direct sun). As I recall, the luschnathiana took many months more to germinate. In fact, I was wondering if they ever would, as Josh76 told me the seeds may not be viable due to age. But luckily some seeds did germinate.

I wasn't aware that some ficus seeds took so long to germinate. The F. benghalensis seeds I ordered never germinated for me. I think I gave them at least six months. I guess I dumped the pots. I've tried several times to root cuttings from local F. benghalensis, never with any success. I plan to try again soon. I've successfully rooted cuttings of F. altissima and F. microcarpa.

I've never tried rooting benghalensis either. Some ficus are extremely easy (incl. rubiginosa) and some are hard. When I got my first columnaris tree years ago I tried everything I could think of to get cuttings established. Tried heat, cold treatment, varying degrees of shade and humidity, mister, aeroponics. Best I got was 4% rooting. Ended up going to Lord Howe Island and collecting seeds. Then some time later I got some advice from another fig guy, so I tried hacking a large piece off with a machete and sticking it roughly into the ground. This method seems to give 100% success. Contrary blighters... maybe the same trick might work with benghalensis?

I like the tropical banyans but temperate ones like columnaris are good enough for me. The biggest columnaris on LHI covered 5 acres with over 1000 trunks, so it's not really a poor imitation of a tropical banyan. I love them! I've got 1800 columnaris seedlings in my nursery to join the 400 or so I've already planted.

Took a picture of this guy at Disneyland at the entrance of Pirates of the Caribbean always love the aerial roots that form on it .

Not to necropost, but my searches for the hardiest evergreen figs have also led me to Rubiginosa and Macrophylla as the best options for trialing in zone 9 and I'm looking for seedlings, cuttings, or ripe figs/seeds.. If anyone has access to any of this or leads on where to get some that would be awesome. I'm ready to pay shipping and then some if anyone can grab any of the above or has them on hand.