The Role and Comprehensive Value of Fig Trees in Tropical Rainforests of Xishuangbanna

Fig trees are a keystone species in the ecosystem of tropical rainforest in Xishuangbanna.Fig trees provide habitats and food for many animals.Among figphagous animals,the frugivorous animal has the largest size except pollinators and others are leafphagous animals and trunkphagous ones sequently.Fig trees have a high comprehensive utilization value.Its shoot can be used as vegetable.Many parts of the fig tree can be used as medicine such as root,bark,leaf and syrup.Figs can be consumed as fresh fruit and are a good kind of stock food. The fig nutritional elements of Ficus recemosa L.and Ficus semicordata Buch. Ham. were analyzed. They are rich in mineral elements and amino acids besides common nutritional components such as sugar,grease and protein.Particularly,there is very rich vitamin C in the figs comparing with other common tropical fruits. The amount of Vc in the two figs mentioned above are 0.68 mg·g-1 and 0.28 mg·g-1 respectively.The richest mineral elements are K,Ca and Mg.Figs can provide a full and balanced diet for frugivorous animals. They are rich in quantity and available all the year. Figs play an inportant role in the food chain in tropical rain forest ecosystem.