F. maxima fruit and leaves are important food resources for a variety of birds and mammals.

[9] In 1768, Scottish botanist Philip Miller described Ficus maxima,[10] citing Linnaeus' Hortus Cliffortianus (1738) and Hans Sloane's Catalogus plantarum quæ in insula Jamaica (1696).

Sloane's illustration of this plant (published in his 1725 A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica) depicted it with figs borne singly, a characteristic of the Ficus subgenus Pharmacosycea.

Berg located the plant collection upon which Sloane's illustration was based and concluded that Miller's F. maxima was, in fact, F.

The description, based on material collected in Venezuela by German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and French botanist Aimé Bonpland, was published in Carl Ludwig Willdenow's fourth edition of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum.

[7] In 1847 Danish botanist Frederik Michael Liebmann applied the name Pharmacosycea glaucescens to Mexican material belonging to this species.

[2] (It was transferred to the genus Ficus by Dutch botanist Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel in 1867.

)[2] In 1849 the name Ficus suffocans was applied to Jamaican material belonging to this species in August Grisebach's Flora of the British West Indian Islands.

[11] In their 1914 Flora of Jamaica, William Fawcett and Alfred Barton Rendle linked Sloane's illustration to F. suffocans.

Gordon DeWolf agreed with their conclusion and used the name F. maxima for that species in the 1960 Flora of Panama, supplanting F. radula and F.

[3] Since this use has become widespread, Berg proposed that the name Ficus maxima be conserved in the way DeWolf had used it with a new type (Krukoff's 1934 collection from Amazonas, Brazil).

[12] Ficus maxima ranges from the northern Caribbean to southern South America, in countries where English, Spanish, Portuguese and a variety of indigenous languages are spoken.

Once mature, they produce a volatile chemical attractant which is recognised by female wasps belonging to the species Tetrapus americanus.

[4] Female fig wasps arrive carrying pollen from their natal tree and squeeze their way through the ostiole into the interior of the syconium.

The syncomium bears 500–600 female flowers arranged in multiple layers - those that are closer to the outer wall of the fig have short pedicels and long styles, while those that are located closer to the interior of the chamber have long pedicels and short styles.

[4] The newly emerged female wasps leave through the exit holes the males have cut and fly off to find a syconium in which to lay their eggs.

Ficus maxima ranges from Paraguay and Bolivia in the south to Mexico in the north, where it is widespread and common.

[25] It is found throughout Central America - in Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama.

It is present in Cuba and Jamaica in the Greater Antilles, and Trinidad and Tobago in the southern Caribbean.

In South America it ranges through Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and in the Brazilian states of Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Pará.

In addition to their pollinators, Ficus species are exploited by a group of non-pollinating chalcidoid wasps whose larvae develop in its figs.

[24] In addition to T. americanus, F. maxima figs from Brazil were found to contain non-pollinating wasps belonging to the genus Critogaster, mites, ants, beetles, and dipteran and lepidopteran larvae.

[34] Norwegian biologist Frode Ødegaard recorded a total of 78 phytophagous (plant-eating) insect species on a single F. maxima tree in Panamanian dry forest—59 wood eating insects, 12 which fed on green plant parts, and 7 flower visitors.

[13] In the provinces of Loja and Zamora-Chinchipe in Ecuador, a leaf infusion is used to treat internal inflammations.

[20] The Tacana of Bolivia use the latex to treat intestinal parasites,[18] as do people in Guatemala's Petén Department.

[14] David Lentz and colleagues observed antimicrobial activity in Ficus maxima extracts.