Ficus variegata is a well distributed species of tropical fig tree. It occurs in many parts of Asia, islands of the Pacific and as far south east as Australia. There is a large variety of local common names including common red stem fig, green fruited fig and variegated fig. A non strangling fig which may reach 30 metres in height. The tree is evergreen when young but becomes briefly deciduous as it grows older. In Australia the fruit are eaten by cassowaries and double-eyed fig parrots.
A spectacular large fig tree typically found in lowland rainforests and gallery forests. This erect tree, which is not a strangler, has large prominent buttresses often extending some distance from the trunk. Leaves are hairless, rather large, 14-21 cm long x 9-13 cm wide. Broken petioles and twigs produce a copious watery to milky exudate. Stipules prominent, and hairless, about 1-1.5 cm long. Figs are not actually fruits, but highly modified inflorescences with the tiny flowers contained inside. These syconia commonly called “figs” are borne on short branches along the trunk and branches, often completely covering the branch. Individual figs are stalked each about 30-50 mm long. Figs round, pea-shaped or slightly flattened, about 30 mm wide, either green or speckled red, so appearing ‘spotty’.The trunk is light gray brown, the leaves are green and heart-shaped. Small fruits are bundled directly on the trunk and come out. As it is a genus, flowers bloom in the fruits as well as fig tree. The fruits are small, shaped like fruits in figs when cut into two. The fruits are red when the ones that were initially green are ripe. Unfortunately, this fruit is not human edible, it feeds livestock, wild monkeys and wild birds. In the old days, in the past, trunks were made on cloth and paper as a material, and trunks and fruits were made to be a medicine for dysentery, however now it is common to see trees with small cute fruits.
