Strangler Fig Fruit
Photo: C & D Frith
Australia's Wet Tropics Rainforest Life
Strangler Fig Fruit: Ficus destruens
Many species of fruit-eating birds eat the succulent fruits of
strangler figs. The indigestible seeds are then voided by the birds and will germinate in
a tree crevice or hole.
The young fig starts its life as an epiphyte in the canopy unlike
other tree seedlings that have to start their struggle for survival on the forest floor.
It grows slowly at first, for there is little water or food for it, but its leathery
leaves reduce water loss.
The plant puts out long cable-like roots that descend down the
host tree trunk to the forest floor and root into the soil beneath. It can then readily
absorb nutrients and water and the young fig tree flourishes.
The thin roots become thicker and interlace their way tightly
around the supporting tree trunk. The expanding leafy crown of the strangler starts to
shade the crown of the support tree and its roots start to strangle its host. The host
tree slowly rots away leaving a totally independent strangler fig which may live for
several hundred years or more.
The most famous of all individual fig trees in the Wet Tropics
are the 'Curtain' and 'Cathedral' figs, on the Atherton Tablelands.