Ficus dammaropsis, Kapiak (Tok Pisin

Tok Pisin

Tok Pisin is a creole spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an official language of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in that country...

), or Highland Breadfruit (English), is tropical fig tree

Ficus

Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...

 with huge pleated leaves 60 cm across. It is native to the highlands and highlands fringe of New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. It generally grows at altitudes of between 800 and 2750 metres; its extreme range is from sea level to 2820 m. Its fruit is edible but rarely eaten except as an emergency food (Bourke nd:4, 11). The young leaves are pickled or cooked and eaten as a vegetable with pig meat (Kambuou 1996:22).

Cultivation

With its bold tropical leaves and relative tolerance of cold, F. dammaropsis is in demand as an ornamental tree in frost-free climates.