A lot of greenery and a small footprint: that is Ficus binnendijkii’s big appeal as a houseplant. It’s a complete personality in your home that invites you to spend some mindful minutes polishing its leaves and is ideal for creating an urban jungle atmosphere quickly and easily. If the two of you get on, you’ve got the plant for life: Ficus binnendijkii can live to a ripe old age.
Colours and shapes
Long narrow leaves and an open structure make Ficus binnendijkii a real beauty as an indoor tree. It’s available as a standard with a full crown of leaves, but is better known as a pillar. The plant takes up little floor space and produces a lot of foliage up high which elegantly droops slightly. The trunk can be twisted or woven, and there are varieties with variegated leaves and varieties where the new leaves are initially peach-coloured with red stems before they turn green. Above all it’s an easy houseplant that does well indoors and requires very little care.
Origin
Ficus binnendijkii is a member of the mulberry family and grows mainly in tropical and subtropical regions in Asia and Africa up to an altitude of 1000 metres. In the wild the plant can reach a height of ten metres, but the cultivated specimens stay smaller than that. Figs grow on the wild plant, but the houseplant focuses virtually entirely on producing fabulous leaves. If you’re lucky enough to have a plant that blooms, the small green flowers are barely noticeable but you will be able to clearly see the small red fruit in the autumn. Simon Binnendijk, after whom the plant is named, was a 19th century gardener and botanist who worked in the Botanical Garden at Bogor on Java for a long time.
Symbolism
In Indonesia Ficus binnendijkii is known as ‘the protector’. Anyone who shelters under it during a rain shower will remain almost completely dry, because the water slides off the hanging leaves.
