What is a fig-tree?

From "Wayside Trees of Malaya" by E. J. H. Corner (1988) 3rd Edition. Kuala Lumpur: United Selangor Press

FIG-TREES

FICUS (Lat., a fig-tree)

Trees with latex: bark generally smooth and entire; twigs marked with a ring-like scar at each node, from the falling off of the conical stipule covering the bud; twigs of small trees often hollow.

Leaves simple or lobed, arranged spirally, alternate or opposite, commonly rather unequal-sided.

Flowers tiny, set inside the fleshy figs, of three kinds: male flowers with 1-5 stamens; female flowers with an ovary and a long style, each setting one seed; gall-flowers like the female but swollen, balloon-like, with a short funnel-shaped style, each containing a fig-wasp, not setting seed; flowers with 3-5 tiny, often wine-red, sepals or merely a cup-shaped calyx.

Fruits as full-grown ripened figs.

About 1000 species, tropical and subtropical, about 500 species in Asia and Australasia; about 100 species in Malaya, lowland and mountain.