Keyed Out #086 — Ficus lyrata

Question 1

Snap a leaf stalk and thick white {latex} beads out of the break within seconds.

Accepted Answer

mulberry family

Question 2

A single sheathing {stipule} caps each shoot tip and falls away as the leaf expands, leaving a clean ring encircling the twig at every {node}.

Accepted Answer

Moraceae

Question 3

Its flowers are sealed inside a hollow fleshy urn whose only door is a pore plugged with overlapping scales, so the plant appears to fruit without ever blooming.

Accepted Answer

Ficus

Question 4

Its blades are undivided, with an unbroken untoothed margin and a smooth glossy upper surface, never cut into lobes and never rough to the touch.

Accepted Answer

Ficus

Question 5

The blade is broad and rounded at the tip, pinched in at the waist and flaring again toward the base, and it runs 10 to 15 inches (25 to 38 cm) long.

Accepted Answer

Ficus lyrata

Question 6

The blade is thick and stiff as card, its pale side veins sunk into the upper face so the surface quilts into shallow bays between them, and it ends bluntly with no drawn-out tail.

Accepted Answer

Ficus lyrata