Invasiveness Assessment - Fig tree (Ficus carica) in Victoria

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Plant invasiveness is determined by evaluating a plant’s biological and ecological characteristics against criteria that encompass establishment requirements, growth rate and competitive ability, methods of reproduction, and dispersal mechanisms.

Each characteristic, or criterion, is assessed against a list of intensity ratings. Depending upon information found, a rating of Low, Medium Low, Medium High or High is assigned to that criterion. Where no data is available to answer a criterion, a rating of medium (M) is applied. A description of the invasiveness criteria and intensity ratings used in this process can be viewed here.

The following table provides information on the invasiveness of Fig tree.

A more detailed description of the methodology of the Victorian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method can be viewed below:

Victorian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method (PDF - 630 KB)
Victorian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method (DOC - 1 MB)
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Common Name: Fig tree
Scientific name: Ficus carica

Question	Comments	Rating	Confidence
Establishment
Germination requirements?	Seeds need to be released from the syconium to be able to germinate which occurs naturally as part of the dispersal process being eaten by birds or mammals or with heavy rain. Germination can occur in autumn or spring depending on the climatic zone (Lisci & Pacini 1994).	MH	H
Establishment requirements?	Reported to invade riparian forest (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000). Can therefore establish under some level of shade.	MH	MH
How much disturbance is required?	Invades riparian vegetation (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000).	MH	MH
Growth/Competitive
Life form?	Other; Tree (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000).	L	MH
Allelopathic properties?	There is no evidence of allelopathic properties.	L	M
Tolerates herb pressure?	Will quickly regrow if cut or damaged (Weber 2003).	MH	MH
Normal growth rate?	Reported to grow quickly (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000).	H	MH
Stress tolerance to frost, drought, w/logg, sal. etc?	If only germinated in autumn seedlings can be killed by a cold winter (Lisci & Pacini 1994). Young trees are susceptible to frost damage, especially severe frosts in spring (NSW Agriculture 2002). Reported to be moderately salt tolerant (Golombek & Lüdders 1993). Reported to be drought tolerant and appropriate species for North and Central Florida (Knox 2001). Unknown tolerance to waterlogging; occurs in riparian habitats but is described as preferring well drained soils (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000; Starr, Starr & Loope 2003). Unknown tolerance to fire, as it resprouts after cutting back and root disturbance, it may be able to resprout after fire even if the above ground parts are killed.	MH	MH
Reproduction
Reproductive system	Reproduces vegetatively by suckering and with stem fragments, and by seed in fruits (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000).	H	MH
Number of propagules produced?	Fruits can contain between 1,000 and 2,000 seeds (Debussche & Isenmann 1989). Wild growing plants usually only produce a few fruit each year (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000). A few fruit a year containing between one and two thousand seeds would be an annual production of more than 2,000 seeds.	H	H
Propagule longevity?	The druplets (seeds) are very small and average of 1,530 being contained in a 36 g syconia (fruit). There is no precise time of propagule longevity reported however those that are not released from the syconium are reported to be attacked by bacteria and fungi and seeds that are released have no other inhibitions to germination (Lisci & Pacini 1994). Therefore it is presumed that less than 25% of propagules would be viable after five years.	L	MH
Reproductive period?	A planted tree has been anecdotally reported to be over 50 years old (Dave’s Garden 2007).	H	ML
Time to reproductive maturity?	Vegetatively propagated plants can produce fruit within one year, plants propagated from seed take 2-3 years to fruit (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000).	H	MH
Dispersal
Number of mechanisms?	Seeds dispersed by birds including Ostrich (Struthio camelus) (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000; Shanahan et al 2001). Foxes are reported to eat figs and act as dispersal agents (Herrera 1989). Water can also disperse vegetative propagules (Bossard, Randell & Hoshovsky 2000).	H	H
How far do they disperse?	Foxes have been reported to have a dispersal range of 5 km (Spennemann & Allen 2000). Dispersal by birds or mammals may range from a few meters to several kilometers (Lisci & Pacini 1994).	H	H

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