''Ficus retusa'' is a species of evergreen woody plant in the

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

genus, native to the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...

and

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It has been given different definitions. The ...

floristic region. The species name has been widely mis-applied to ''

Ficus microcarpa ''Ficus microcarpa'', also known as Chinese banyan, Malayan banyan, Indian laurel, curtain fig, or , is a tree in the fig family Moraceae. It is native in a range from China through tropical Asia and the Caroline Islands to Australia. It is wide ...

''.

Description

''Ficus retusa'' is a rapidly growing, rounded, broad-headed, evergreen

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

or tree that can reach in height with an equal spread. The smooth, light grey trunk is quite striking, can grow to around in diameter, and it firmly supports the massively spreading canopy. The tree has glabrous obovate leaves, usually longer than and spirally arranged. It has a gray to reddish bark dotted with small, horizontal flecks, called lenticels, that are used by woody plant species for supplementary gas exchange through the bark. The name is commonly used to refer to ornamental indoor plants (for example bonsai) widely cultivated in temperate regions, but such plants generally belong to another species, ''

''. The two species can be distinguished from the length of the leaf blade (usually for ''F. retusa'', and usually less than for ''F. microcarpa'' but rarely up to ).

Notes

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2701705

retusa ''Retusa'' is a genus of very small head-shield sea snails or barrel-bubble snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Retusidae.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2013). ''Retusa'' T. Brown, 1827. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at ...

Flora of Malesia Indomalayan realm flora Garden plants of Asia Ornamental trees Plants used in bonsai fi:Malaganviikuna