Small Ficus tree
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Ficus trees (Ficus macrocarpa) are very common street trees in San Francisco. Many large specimins magnificently line 24st in the Mission District. They are in every neighborhood. Unfortunately they are pavement busters and are known for dropping limbs.
This tree collapsed on itself in San Francisco last year.
http://sfist.com/2010/06/08/
I have heard that insurance companies wont cover auto damage caused by ficus trees.
This doesn’t happen every day, but I wouldn’t park your 1958 Ford Thunderbird under a large ficus. I won’t park my truck under a Ficus tree simply because it is almost a guarantee that the birds will have crapped all over it by morning.
They do a great job cleaning the air. They trap more pollutants than any other tree in San Francisco. After an hour in a ficus tree my face looks like I’ve been playing in a chimney.
In the Moraceae family, Ficus is a genus with over 850 species. Some of the more famous onces are: Ficus benjamina, a common house plant; Ficus carica, the common fig; Ficus benghalensis, the Banyan Tree, known in tropical climates of its aerial roots that create massive trunks.
In San Francisco ficus trees are often topped. I’ve seen them sometimes re-sprout and sometimes die. Never top your trees. They can be pruned harder than most trees, but if you remove all of the green you may end up with a dead tree.
