Common Name: MULBERRY FAMILY
Habit: [Perennial herb] shrub, [vine] tree, generally with milky juice; monoecious or dioecious. Leaf: alternate [opposite], petioled, generally simple, entire to lobed, evergreen or deciduous; stipules present. Inflorescence: raceme, spike, head, or flowers enclosed in thick receptacle, axillary. Flower: unisexual or bisexual, small, +- radial; sepals generally 4, free or fused at base; petals 0; stamens generally 4, opposite sepals; ovary generally superior, 1-chambered, style simple or 2-parted. Fruit: achenes many within fleshy calyces or surrounded by fleshy inflorescence receptacle.
Genera In Family: 37 genera, 1100 species: tropics, subtropics, some temperate; many cultivated (Ficus, fig; Artocarpus, breadfruit, jackfruit; Morus, mulberry). Note: Insect- or wind-pollinated.
eFlora Treatment Author: Alan T. Whittemore & Elizabeth McClintock
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: FIG
Habit: Shrub, tree, [vine, occasionally rooted on other pls], unarmed; monoecious. Stem: buds inside conic stipules; stipule scar encircling stem. Leaf: entire or lobed, deciduous or evergreen; major veins palmate. Inflorescence: flowers internal, enclosed in an obovoid [spheric] inflorescence receptacle with a small, scaly opening. Pistillate Flower: style simple. Fruit: achenes many within fleshy inflorescence receptacle.
Etymology: (Latin: fig) Note: Pollination generally by small wasps. Reports of Ficus pseudocarica Miq. and Ficus palmata Forssk. based on misidentified specimens of Ficus carica (Whittemore 2006 Sida 22:769--775).