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Botanical name: Ficus opposita
Call it: Ngamarnajina in Yawuru
Ranyja in Bardi
Jirrib in Nyul Nyul
Ranyja in Nyangumarta
Ranyja in Karajarri
Along Gupungi Road, in the scrub on either
side, you’ll also find Ranyja. This small tree is commonly
called sandpaper fig, because of the rough texture of it’s
leaves. Ranyja mayi is found on the tree in March -
April. (FRUIT BEGINS TO GROW IN SEPTEMBER). It is fig- like, turning blackish purple and soft when "cook".
The Yawuru people call it Ngamarna because it is as sweet as mothers milk. Ngamarna is their word for breast and jina means "belonging to". The leaves of the Ranyja tree were used t by the Bardi
people in the same manner as sandpaper, to smooth the rough edges of their irrol-spears, irrikil-boomerangs and even the surfaces of shells like the kuwarn-pearlshells. It is interesting to discover that the Bardi name Ranyja is also given to the rough-skinned Black Swordfish.
Because of their rough texture these leaves also have a medicinal value.
They hold heat when warmed at the fire and so were used in the manner of a poultice, for the treatment of bruises, swellings and rheumatism. The same use of the leaves has been noted as far a field as Groote Eylandt off the Northern Territory coast. *
Ficus opposita Miq. Var. indecora (Miq.) corner Sandpaper Fig
Shrub or small tree to 3m, bark brown, slightly fissured; twigs hairy;
Leaves opposite and/ or alternate, ovate or elliptic to almost circular,
Coriaceous, scabrid, minutely pitted beneath with puberulous or mainly villous stomatal pits; male or female flowers in figs on separate plants;
Figs green become purplish black when ripe, axillary, scabrous or Glabrescent, giobular to urceolate.
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