Photo: കാക്കര — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 8 through 9
Harvest calendar
Ripens: Breba early summer + main crop late summer
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Roxburgh fig bears large, fuzzy, yellow-to-purple syconia directly on the trunk and older branches (and sometimes even surface roots) in heavy clusters — eaten raw, cooked into curries and jams, or juiced, with a mild sweetness milder than F. carica.
- Hardiness
- Zone 8–9
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Breba early summer + main crop late summer
- Mature size
- Small spreading tree 3–10 m carrying enormous leaves; containerable while young
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.5 (lime-tolerant)
- Environment
- Subtropical
- Native range
- Native to the subtropical Himalayan foothills and adjacent parts of South and Southeast Asia, including India, Nepal, Bhutan, and southern China, typically along moist valley and stream-bank forest edges.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 1–2 yrs
- Growth speed
- Fast
- Spacing
- 300 cm (118 in) apart — about 9 m² (97 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Large, ovate to heart-shaped leaves, among the biggest in the genus, up to 30–55 cm long, coarsely toothed, with reddish new growth maturing to deep green.
- Root system
- Vigorous, wide-spreading fibrous root system typical of fig trees; performs well root-restricted in containers, which curbs vegetative vigor and promotes fruiting.
- Fruit description
- Large oblate figs up to 4 cm wide, covered in soft yellowish pubescence, ripening from light yellow to deep purple; borne in dense clusters directly on the trunk and old wood, with a mild, faintly sweet flavor.
- Propagation
- Primarily by stem cuttings (6–8 inch sections with at least two nodes, rooted in moist mix under humidity) or by air layering; seed propagation is uncommon in cultivation.
- Pollination
- Common-type figs PARTHENOCARPIC — no pollination needed
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
How it spreads. Does not sucker or self-seed as a garden weed in temperate climates; spreads only where planted, though old trunks can produce new sprouts from the base if cut back.
Growing tips. Markedly less cold-hardy than F. carica, reliably outdoors only in zones 9–11 and damaged or killed by temperatures much below freezing, so it is usually grown in a container and moved under cover, or given a warm, sheltered wall with winter protection in marginal zones. Cauliflorous fruiting habit means fruit clusters form directly on woody stems rather than on new shoot tips.
Grow journal
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