DARWIN, Northern Territory (CU)_Since the earliest of days Fig trees have played an important role in the lives of Australia’s First Nations people, with the small deciduous plants providing food in particularly arid environments. Around 750 species of fig have so far been discovered across the world, of which around two-thirds are found in Asia and Australasia. Recently, scientists managed to add one more to the list, as they made an once-in-a-lifetime discovery, an unknown plant species, on the giant rock of Uluru, in the heart of Australia’s Northern Territory.
The plant, which was said to have been hiding in plain sight for years, has been named as Ficus desertorum, or the desert fig. Previously, it was believed to be part of a sub-category of a fig species that is largely found in the northern and central parts of the Pacific nation, known as Ficus brachypoda. However, the plant’s leaves are narrower, smoother and thicker, than other related types of figs, while a detailed analysis has revealed that it has its own distinct regional habitat.
“Careful study of collections held in herbaria across Australia, and with reference to historical specimens held in European herbaria, showed that the central Australian populations were indeed morphologically distinct from more northern or western populations,” Russell Barrett, a systematic botanist from the National Herbarium of New South Wales in Australia, said. “These figs are an incredibly significant species to First Nations peoples in central Australia, for food, shelter, and spirituality. Damaging these trees could be punishable by death historically, such is their significance to the whole community.”
According to researchers, this new species can also be found in several other elevated landscapes in the Northern Territory of Australia, including Karlu Karlu, or the Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve, and Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas. While the scientists involved in the discovery have held discussions with the Australian Central Land Council to consider the possibility of using a name used by the various First Nations people for the new species, given the lengthy list of words used throughout the local languages for the tree, a more standard scientific name was chosen instead.
“To recognize a new species for science is always exciting but to find one on Uluru is not something you expect in a lifetime of research,” Barrett noted.
