the most interesting plants of the solomon islands?

[epiphyte]

recently on facebook, a ficus collector in vista, jason thomas (is he on here?), messaged me asking if i knew ficus hoarder on instagram.   it was the 1st i'd heard of that username so i checked the page out and wow, very wow.  what an incredible collection!  the guy definitely lives somewhere tropical, and i guessed australia.  what came to mind was, a month ago on facebook, a fellow in australia from the ficus study group messaged me about the ficus pancheriana seedling i had posted in the group.   i checked out his facebook page and saw some of the same pics as ficus_hoarder.  

ficus hoarder and i messaged on instagram about ficus salomonensis, which has leaves just over 6' long.  we both greatly lamented the tragic fact that this incredible species isn't in cultivation.  i ended up encouraging him to start a gofundme or something similar to help fund a trip to the solomon islands to try and collect seeds.  he liked the idea, but not sure if he will do it.  

does anyone else like the idea of chipping in to help send a seriously skilled ficus collector to the solomon islands to try and find ficus salomonensis in order to bring it into cultivation?  clearly the chances of success would be pretty low.  based on a few minutes of internet sleuthing, i narrowed the island down to bougainville island, and maybe the crown prince mountains.  still though it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.  on the other hand, this ficus sure does have huge leaves.  

i thought that bougainville island was named after the plant but nope.  it's named after a french navigator louis antoine de bougainville.  incidentally, the plant, bougainvillea, was also named for him (it's native to south america).

just did a kew checklist for ficus in the solomon islands (bougainville island wasn't an option) and there were 70 results... 

Ficus adenosperma
Ficus arawaensis
Ficus arfakensis
Ficus austrina
Ficus baccaureoides
Ficus baeuerlenii 
Ficus baola
Ficus benjamina
Ficus bernaysii
Ficus bougainvillei
Ficus bubulia
Ficus chrysochaete
Ficus congesta
Ficus copiosa
Ficus corneriana
Ficus crassiramea
Ficus crassiramea subsp. crassiramea.
Ficus cynaroides
Ficus dissipata
Ficus disticha
Ficus disticha subsp. calodictya
Ficus drupacea 
Ficus erinobotrya
Ficus erythrosperma
Ficus glandifera 
Ficus glandulifera 
Ficus gracillima
Ficus gryllus 
Ficus gul 
Ficus hesperidiiformis 
Ficus hombroniana 
Ficus illiberalis 
Ficus imbricata 
Ficus imbricata var. imbricata.
Ficus imbricata var. subcordata 
Ficus immanis 
Ficus indigofera 
Ficus lancibracteata 
Ficus longibracteata 
Ficus longibracteata var. lebetoides 
Ficus longibracteata var. longibracteata.
Ficus macrothyrsa 
Ficus magwana 
Ficus magwana subsp. magwana.
Ficus melinocarpa 
Ficus microcarpa 
Ficus microcarpa var. microcarpa.
Ficus mollior 
Ficus nasuta 
Ficus novae-georgiae 
Ficus obliqua 
Ficus oleracea 
Ficus oleracea var. oleracea.
Ficus oleracea var. pugnans 
Ficus oleracea var. villosa 
Ficus papuana 
Ficus polyantha 
Ficus prasinicarpa 
Ficus profusa 
Ficus pseudowassa 
Ficus racemifera 
Ficus salomonensis 
Ficus scaposa 
Ficus schumanniana 
Ficus septica 
Ficus setulosa 
Ficus solomonensis 
Ficus storckii 
Ficus storckii var. kajewskii 
Ficus subcongesta 
Ficus subcordata 
Ficus subtrinervia 
Ficus subulata 
Ficus tanypoda 
Ficus theophrastoides 
Ficus theophrastoides var. angustifolia 
Ficus theophrastoides var. theophrastoides.
Ficus tinctoria 
Ficus tinctoria subsp. tinctoria.
Ficus trachypison 
Ficus variegata 
Ficus verticillaris 
Ficus verticillaris var. robusta
Ficus verticillaris var. verticillaris
Ficus virens 
Ficus virens var. dispersa 
Ficus virgata 
Ficus wassa 

for the relatively small size of the solomon islands, 70 out of 850 ficus species is quite significant.  does this count as a hotspot of ficus diversity?  

out of curiosity i also searched the solomon islands for aeschynanthus (epiphytic gesneriad) and there are 185 species.  woah!  

what about palms?  tree ferns?  fruit trees?  orchids?  hoyas?

searched for platycerium, no results found!?  now i'm only going to chip in $1!  just kidding.  i'm under the impression that surveys of every plant group haven't been conducted for every place.   maybe this fern survey of solomon islands somehow missed a staghorn?  

let's say that ficus hoarder did start a gofundme to help pay for his trip to bougainville island.  if you chipped in, perhaps you could say, "please don't overlook the tree ferns."  or "please don't overlook the fruit trees."  or "please don't overlook this rare palm".  obviously it wouldn't be necessary to say "please don't overlook the ficus."  

a couple days ago i found this video of a ficus tree in nepal.  looks closest to ficus auriculata but the fig shape is closer to ficus carica.   whatever it is, those figs look really tasty.  coincidentally, yesterday on my instagram feed, i saw a pic of a guy at the airport heading to nepal, where he's from.  of course i messaged him the ficus video.  he's not a ficus collector, so i doubt he will go out of his way to find that particular ficus, but that video will hopefully be somewhere in the back of his mind, and it will slightly decrease the chance he would overlook that ficus.  

lately i've been watching patrick blanc's videos where he goes to exotic locations and highlights the most interesting plants.  his definition of "interesting" overlaps quite a bit with my own definition.  in his visit to indonesia i was really happy he didn't overlook ficus pungens.  it has long hanging clusters of small figs.  i'd sure love to see it crossed with carica.  alas, i'm guessing that patrick didn't collect any seeds.  trees typically don't work so well on the vertical gardens he's famous for.  

even though i couldn't find seeds of ficus pugens anywhere, on ebay i did find seeds of the somewhat similar ficus semicordata.  check out this video of kids in assam india picking its fruits hanging down a small cliff.  the fruits are larger than pungens and evidently they taste good.  so i bought the ebay seeds.  if and when i get them it should be obvious whether or not they are ficus seeds.  a year or two ago i bought ebay seeds from two different vendors... ficus opposita and ficus racemosa.  the seeds were definitely ficus but none of the opposita seeds germinated, unlike the racemosa seeds.  it's crazy that i've been collecting ficus for nearly 50 years but somehow i managed to overlook racemosa.  some forms have blue grey leaves with bright red petioles, and it grows really well here in socal.  maybe @Peter can share progress pics of the ficus racemosa i gave him?  

overlooking the best things, is the worst thing. 

for 30 years i overlooked this paper about a couple natural hybrids of ficus religiosa.  in florida it was naturally crossed with ficus aurea,.  and in the philippines, ficus religiosa was naturally crossed with ficus septica..   ficus aurea and religiosa are both in the same subgenus (urostigma) but septica is in the subgenus sycomorus.  

it turns out that most ficus species have the same chromosome number (26).  for comparison horses have 64 chromosomes, while donkeys have 62.  when you cross them the result are mules with 63 chromosomes, which is why they are sterile.  

in my ficus hybridization thread here on palmtalk, when @Josh76 wondered if it was possible to cross carica and macrophylla, i did not tread softly on his dreams.  back then i was so ignorant.  who knows what kinda crazy ficus crosses are possible.  

maybe ficus hoarder only manages to find a single ficus solomonensis tree, but its male.  ideally he could collect pollen and put it in some figs of ficus dammaropsis.  maybe the result would be the ficus equivalent of aloe goliath, which really loves beheading itself.  

check out this vox video...  what's inside this crater in madagascar?  it's so random but fascinating.   in the bonus footage video you can see some interesting plants.  but it's a given that they overlooked way more interesting plants than they noticed.  

in summary, the harsh reality is that we're all really ignorant.  but we're not equally ignorant.  we're all ignorant about different things.  we're all knowledgeable about different things.  this is why two heads are better than one.  let's put our heads together and minimize the chances that ficus hoarder, or anyone else, overlooks the most interesting plants of the solomon islands.  

see also: who should we send to bolivia?

lastly here's an entirely random and completely irrelevant quote...

"The absence of [Dendrobium trilamellatum] from the mainland of the Northern Territory and its presence on Melville and Bathurst islands leads to the speculation that it might have been introduced to these islands by Macassamen (trepang fishermen) who were known to plant all manner of things on some of the places they visited during the travels." - A. W. Dockrill, Australian Indigenous Orchid

[Peter]

Racemosa-grows like a rocket

[Josh76]

Thanks for sharing the instagram account. Looks like an incredible collection... but the thing that I noticed more than anything was his pic of a F. dammaropsis seedling... implying that they were able to source seed. I didn't think F. dammaropsis seed was available anywhere but maybe I'm wrong about that???

I will still keep my dream alive for the F. carica x F. macrophylla tree then 😜

[jasonthomas]

I am on here! But I live in San Diego, not Vista. My ficus collection is only edible figs, 2 big ficus auriculata, and a couple ficus macrophylla from Balboa park I grew from seed. I love ficus but my room for collection isn't too large. Oh I have a petiolaris also.

[epiphyte]

@Josh76 i'm sure there are plenty of people in papua new guinea (png) willing to sell you ficus dammaropsis seeds.  who are these people exactly?  i wish that i knew.  i'm sure that there's more than one facebook group dedicated to png where you might connect with a willing seller.    

@jasonthomas according to my crystal ball, in 2 years you're going to buy 10 acres in vista where you will amass the biggest collection of ficus in california.  

have you been on the lookout for male carica trees?  i know of a few in my area but maybe there are some really good ones in your neck of the woods.  if so, then we will have so much carica pollen to successfully pollinate your auriculata figs.  the hybrids will look just like this tree in nepal.  

[Josh76]

  On 11/1/2024 at 3:41 PM, epiphyte said:

have you been on the lookout for male carica trees?  i know of a few in my area but maybe there are some really good ones in your neck of the woods.  if so, then we will have so much carica pollen to successfully pollinate your auriculata figs.  the hybrids will look just like this tree in nepal.  

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Could that be Ficus palmata? I've not seen it with my own eyes, but the leaves look about right to me in that video 🤷‍♂️

[jasonthomas]

I'm sure there are tons of volunteer male figs around. I've seen a pic with a syringe - any videos of that I could watch?

[epiphyte]

@Josh76 the mystery nepal ficus is somewhat cauliflorous, unlike palmata.  also, the insides of a palmata fig look identical to the insides of a carica fig.  while the insides of the mystery fig look more like wet jelly.  maybe the mystery ficus is a cross between palmata and auriculata.  

@jasonthomas this is the video that i tried to follow, at least for my 1st attempt.  didn't have any luck, but in retrospect maybe the ficus fraseri figs i tried using as pollen donors, weren't actually male figs, heh.  for my 2nd attempt i did have luck.  this time i used carica as the pollen donor and a secret ficus species as the pollen recipient.  the syringe i used was 20ml with a 18 gauge needle.   i didn't add any sugar to the pollen water.   i also had luck with this system on the 3rd attempt.  

[Josh76]

Not sure if you can access it over there, @epiphyte but in the new BBC wildlife documentary series called 'Asia' there is an episode called 'Crowded Continent' that contains a segment set in India which features a similar-looking tree. They don't name the location, other than to say that it's in the foothills of the Himalayas. I tried to get some screengrabs but they're a bit blurry...

 

 

[epiphyte]

@Josh76 nice catch!  hard to tell without seeing the figs, which is kinda strange because auriculata typically has figs on it year around.  maybe the monkeys ate them all.  

here's a neat auriculata type.  the figs aren't as flat as typical auriculata and they have ridiculously long pedicels.  

i had a crazy idea last night while watching this video of a ficus auriculata with fruits forming for the 1st time.  you can clearly see the figs developing on a modified stem.  my auriculata trunk is like half the size, so it might be a few years before it starts to fruit.  but i'm too impatient.  what if i cut off a newly formed modified stem and grafted it onto the trunk of my plant?  would it grow and produce fruit?  i don't see why it wouldn't.  

wish that i had thought of this a long time ago!  now it's too late in the year to try,  darn it.  if only i had a real greenhouse.  

maybe in the springtime @jasonthomas can try grafting modified stems from his fruiting plant onto his established air-layers.  if successful, this would increase their value.