Indian fig (Ficus comosa)
Original title: Figueira da Índia (Ficus comosa)
An ornamental fig tree grown in Funchal's quintas and squares, said to descend from one specimen saved from a late 18th-century shipwreck.
A handsome tree cultivated in the quintas (country estate) and in some of the squares of Funchal. It belongs to the family Urticaceae and has evergreen leaves of a lovely green, and small syconia that never fully ripen.
It is said that the first Indian fig tree in Madeira came on a ship bound for Europe that was wrecked in the harbour of Funchal at the end of the 18th century. A sailor from that ship managed to bring the fig tree ashore, and it was planted in the grounds of Quinta Vigia (‘lookout’), where it lived for many years and became the parent stock of all the specimens of the same species that later appeared on the island.
In this article
Place
Places mentioned · 02
- Funchal
City where the tree is cultivated and whose harbour saw the shipwreck.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Quinta Vigia
Funchal. Estate where the first tree was planted.
A state-owned estate in São Pedro parish, Funchal, noted for rare exotic trees, which served as a residence for Queen Adelaide, the Empress of Austria (1860–61) and the Prince of Oldenburg. It later became barracks of the Republican Guard, had a casino that issued tokens in 1901, and was hit by a shell in the 1916 bombardment.