strangler fig

obtusifolia and F. nymphaeifolia, are known as strangler figs. The seeds of strangler figs germinate on a host tree and grow around its trunk in a strangling latticework, eventually killing the host tree. One freestanding New World species, F. insipida, has the highest photosynthetic rate of any…

…stranglers, including Ficus obtusifolia and F. nymphaeifolia. Beginning life as a sticky seed left on a high tree branch by an animal such as a bird, bat, or monkey, the young strangler lives as an epiphyte on the tree’s surface. As it grows, long roots develop and descend along the…