Strangler fig!

For those of you who don't know about strangler figs, I highly suggest you look into them, but I will try to sate your curiosity for the moment:

Strangler figs (genus: ficus) produce figs which are eaten by birds, carried far and wide, and shat out on the branch of a well established rainforest tree. The strangler fig germinates on the host tree above the understory, starts growing up and wraps skinny roots around the trunk and down to the forest floor (imagine the liliputians tying Gulliver to the ground). Once the roots reach the ground it is like a shot of steroids to the strangler. The roots swell and tighten their grip on the host (imagine the scene in Golden Eye with Anya Top in the bath house). The strangler takes advantage of the host's height in order to reach the precious sunlight beyond the canopy. Over a number of years the strangler puts down a lattice of expanding roots that envelope the host, competes for water and nutrients, and eventually squeezes the host's plumbing (xylem/phloem) shut. Eventually the host dies and decays, leaving behind the boas empty coils. In many cases these stranglers who no longer have a host for support will topple onto another prospective host, start the process anew, and in some cases will create a sinuous wall that looks like a Myazaki-esque monstrosity (to see some pictures of famous giant strangler, look up photos of cathedral fig or curtain fig in australia's north eastern atherton tablelands).

This is a photo climbing up the inside of the strangler fig, the vacant area where the host once occupied.

Pheew, I'm glad I got that out. You shouldn't fear strangler figs, you should revere them. If you thought strangler figs were cool, just wait and learn about the relationship between each species of fig and it's specific species of pollinating wasp.

Posted via email from Lonely Dinosaur