Ficus Pleurocarpa - Ecology

Ecology

Figs are sometimes considered to be potential keystone species in communities of fruit-eating animals; their asynchronous fruiting patterns may cause them to be important fruit sources when other food sources are scarce. Ficus pleurocarpa was the most largest contributor of fruit biomass in the forest canopy during periods of fruit scarcity, and was ranked as the species that made the second most important contribution to the frugivore community, although the authors of the study were unwilling to call it a keystone species. However, during a season of fruit scarcity, F. pleurocarpa sustained the Musky Rat-kangaroo population at one particular research site

The fruit of F. pleurocarpa fruit are relatively small and become soft when ripe. This makes them accessible to the entire fruit-eating community. However, most F. pleurocarpa figs are available in the canopy—only a small proportion of the fruit crop falls to the forest floor.

Spectacled Flying-foxes consume F. pleurocarpa fruit and act as seed dispersers.

In a study of fungal succession, 104 species were observed over the course of a three-month incubation of F. pleurocarpa leaves. Using different methods, 53 fruiting species and 100 sterile morphospecies were isolated. Cylindrocladium australiense, a new species of fungus in the family Nectriaceae described in 2006, was isolated from F. pleurocarpa leaves.