Translate this page
Garden Talk
Botanical name: Ficus pumila
Common name: Creeping fig
Family name: Moraceae (Mulberry family)
Native range: East Asia
Location in Duke Gardens: Historic Gardens, Doris Duke Center Gardens
USDA Hardiness Zones: 8-11
By Katherine Hale
Marketing & Communications Assistant
If you look closely at the stonework connecting the Mary Duke Biddle Rose Garden and the Walker Dillard Kirby Perennial Allée, or bordering the Virtue Peace Pond and the Angle Amphitheater, you’ll notice vines with small heart-shaped leaves and adventitious roots emerging from the flattened woody stems. This unobtrusive plant is the creeping fig (Ficus pumila), a relative of both the common edible fig (F. carica) and the many species of tropical figs commonly grown as houseplants, like the weeping fig (F. benjamina) and rubber fig (F. elastica).
Creeping fig—like all figs—is full of sticky latex, which it uses to glue itself to its surroundings, making it challenging to remove once attached. As with many species of vines, including English ivy (Hedera helix), creeping fig has two forms, each with a drastically different appearance. Once creeping fig reaches a certain size, it will produce horizontal branches with larger, leathery leaves and fig-shaped “fruits," which are actually specialized compound flowers known as synconia, a favorite pollen source for tiny wasps in its native range. However, creeping fig is not cold hardy, which means it regularly dies back during the winter here in North Carolina, and thus remains in a juvenile state.
Because creeping fig is so sensitive to frost, it is usually grown as a houseplant in temperate regions. But it can also be grown outdoors in the right locations. Here at Duke Gardens, the same stone walls that support the plants also keep them warm during the winter. The rocks and masonry absorb heat during the day, which they slowly radiate at night, creating a warmer microclimate that keeps the creeping fig from being exposed to the full brunt of winter chill. Thus, growing creeping fig on stone walls is not only for aesthetics—it is also a creative and way to allow the plant to thrive where it otherwise would not. As a bonus, this dependency also ensures that creeping fig will remain where it is planted and never take over the garden.
Photo: Creeping fig on Duke stone in the Doris Duke Center Gardens, by Clarence Burke.
