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This species appears on the following legally prohibited plant lists

UF-IFAS Assessment of Non-Native Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas

CATEGORY I on the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s (FLEPPC) 2017 List of Invasive Plant Species

Download a recognition card (PDF) from Invasive and Non-native Plants You Should Know3

Download a page (PDF) from Identification and Biology of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas – Second Edition1

Control information: Integrated Management of Nonnative Plants in Natural Areas of Florida (EDIS publication SP 242)4

View more information and pictures about laurel fig, as contained in the Langeland/Burks book, Identification & Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas.

Appearance

Evergreen tree to 15 m (50 ft) or more in height, with a rounded dense crown; smooth gray bark, milky sap, and long, thin, dangling aerial roots.

Leaves

Alternate, simple, leathery, deep glossy green; oval-elliptic to diamond-shaped, to 13 cm (5 in) long, with short pointed, ridged tips.

Flowers

Tiny, unisexual, numerous, hidden within the “fig”; a fleshy, specialized receptacle that develops into a multiple fruit (syconium).

Fruit

Green turning to yellow or dark red when ripe; sessile, in pairs at leaf axils; small, to 1 cm (0.5 in) in diameter.

Ecological threat

Began spreading by seed in the 1970s, following apparently accidental introduction of species-specific pollinating wasps. Found in various tropical hammocks. FLEPPC Category I

Distribution

C, SW, SE

Field Notations FICUMICR/FIMI2

Text from Invasive and Non-Native Plants You Should Know, Recognition Cards, by A. Richard and V. Ramey, 2007. UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, Publ. No. SP 431.

View the herbarium specimen image from the University of Florida Herbarium Digital Imaging Projects.

Citations

1. Identification and Biology of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas – Second Edition,
by K.A. Langeland, H.M. Cherry, et al. University of Florida-IFAS Publication # SP 257. 2008.

2. Strangers in Paradise, Impact and Management of Nonindigenous Species in Florida, Chapter 2: Florida’s Invasion by Nonindigenous Plants: History, Screening, and Regulation, by D.R.
Gordon and K.P. Thomas, pp. 21-37. Island Press, Washington, DC, 1997.

3. Invasive and Non-native Plants You Should Know – Recognition Cards,
by A. Richard and V. Ramey. University of Florida-IFAS Publication # SP 431. 2007.

4. Integrated Management of Nonnative Plants in Natural Areas of Florida, by K. A. Langeland, J. A. Ferrell, B. Sellers, G. E. MacDonald, and R. K. Stocker. University of Florida-IFAS Publication # SP 242. 2011.

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