Ficus Rubiginosa - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Port Jackson fig was described by French botanist René Louiche Desfontaines. Its specific epithet rubiginosa related to the rusty coloration of the undersides of the leaves. Indeed, rusty fig is an alternate common name; others include Illawarra fig and Port Jackson fig. It was known as damun (pron. "tam-mun") to the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney basin.

In a study published in 2008, Nina Rønsted and colleagues analysed the DNA sequences from the nuclear ribosomal internal and external transcribed spacers (ITS and ETS), and the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3pdh) region, in the first molecular analysis of the section Malvanthera. They found F. rubiginosa to be most closely related to the rainforest species F. watkinsiana and two lithophytic species of arid northern Australia (F. atricha and F. brachypoda) and classified it in a new series Rubiginosae in the subsection Platypodeae. Relationships are unclear and it is uncertain which direction the group radiated (into rainforest or into arid Australia).