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Family • Moraceae
Payapa
Balete
Ficus payapa Blanco
PAYAPA FIG
Zhen guo rong

Scientific names Common names
Ficus payapa Blanco Balete (Ig.)
Ficus drupacea Thunberg Basakla (Ilk.)
Ficus forstenii Miq. Dalagit (Bis.)
Ficus pilosa Reinw. ex Blume Dalakit (C. Bis.)
Ficus indica Blanco ? Lañgaban (Mag.)
Ficus microcarpa F.-Vill. ? Nonok (Bis., Tak.)
Ficus vidaliana Warb. ? Payapa (Tag.)
Ficus saxophila F.-Vill. ? Puos (Itn.)
  Puspus (Ilk.)
  Zhen guo rong (Chin.)
  Brown wooly fig (Engl.)
  Hairy fig (Engl.)
  Payapa fig (Engl.)
Worldwide there are over 800 species of the genus Ficus (Latin: fig) and of the more than 10 species found in the Philippines, Balete is a shared common name for six of them: (1) Ficus benjamina, salisi (2) Ficus elastica, Indian rubber tree (3) Ficus indica, baleteng-baging (4) Ficus payapa, payapa (5) Ficus retusa, marabutan, and (6) Ficus stipulosa, botgo.

Botany
Payapa is a plant that starts as an epiphyte, like any strangling fig. Leaves are rigidly leathery, smooth, oblong to ovately elliptic, the smaller one oblanceolate, averaging 15 cm long and nearly half as wide, with blunt or rounded tip. Fruit is ellipsoid, about 2 cm in length, smooth and shining, hard, dull red, sessile, and subtended by 2 to 3 very small ovatge bracts or ebracteolate.

Distribution
- In forests at low and medium altitudes throughout the Philippines.
- Also occurs in Borneo, Celebes, and Timor.

Properties
 Vulnerary.

Parts used
Roots.

Uses
Folkloric
Powdered roots applied to wounds used as vulnerary.

Availability
Wild-crafted.

June 2011
IMAGE SOURCE: Banyan / File:Ficus pumila Blanco1.203-cropped.jpg / Francisco Manuel Blanco / Flora de Filipinas / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Ficus payapa Blanco / The PLANT List
(2)
Sorting Ficus names / MULTILINGUAL MULTISCRIPT PLANT NAME DATABASE
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