Ficus heterophylla

Latin Name	Observation Date	Location
*Ficus heterophylla*	May 13, 2026	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh

On the afternoon of May 13th, I was walking along the side of the road in our area. Suddenly, a wild creeper tree growing on top of other trees caught my eye. The tree was bearing some small, strange and beautiful fruits. Seeing the white dots on the fruit and light pink or reddish spots on the top, I became quite curious and took a few close-up pictures with my lens. Later, by checking the internet, I found out some great information about this creeper tree, which I am sharing with you today.

Name and Family: According to the information, the scientific name of this strange and beautiful creeper tree is Ficus heterophylla. It is basically a plant of the (Moraceae) or fig family. In our Bangladesh and surrounding areas, it is commonly known as 'Bhui Dumur', 'Ballam Dumur' or 'Ghati-Sheora'.

Size and Habitat: Although common fig trees are much larger, the biggest feature of the Bhuy fig is that it is a creeping or bushy plant. It usually grows in damp places, river banks, ponds or around wetlands and grows by rolling on the ground or climbing over other trees and fences. Another great aspect of this plant is the diversity of its leaves - sometimes round, sometimes betel leaf-like, and sometimes grooved leaves can be seen on the same tree.

Fruit structure: The round fruits you see in the picture, according to the characteristics of the fig family, are green in color when raw and have small white hairs or dots on them. There is a small hole or reddish spot at the very top of the fruit (which is called Ostiole in botany). When ripe, they usually turn dark red or brown.

Benefits: Although it is a wild plant, it has quite good medicinal properties. This prickly pear is known to be used in traditional rural medicine, especially to treat infections or wounds on the nails of the hands or feet. In addition, its small fruits are a great food source for various birds and insects in the natural ecosystem.

Harmfulness: It does not have any major harmful effects. However, since it is creeping and grows very quickly, if it grows around crop fields or landscaped gardens, it can often entangle other small plants and hinder their normal growth and can become a weed.

All in all, I like this creeping prickly pear tree quite a lot. Do you see such prickly pears in the bushes or on the banks of ponds in your area? You can tell me in the comments.

I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.

(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.)
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Camera Used	Samsung SM-G973F
F-Stop	F2.4
ISO speed	ISO
Focal length	26mm
Flash	No
Editing app	No
Photography	(Ficus heterophylla)
Photographer	@mshbd
Location	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh