🇺🇸The strangler fig trees are species whose seeds, germinated on tree branches after being transported by the wind or an animal, begin their vegetative life as epiphytes, although they only use their host as a support, not as food sustenance. As they grow, they develop long aerial roots that embrace the tree on their way to the ground. Eventually, they strangle and kill the host in their attempt to reach sunlight, which is quite scarce in the understory of the rainforest vegetation that is the

Did you know Strangler fig actually refers to many species of Ficus, which many can germinate terrestrially and grow as freestanding trees. 👻 Those beginning as epiphytes use a tree for support, but do not directly draw nutrients like a parasite. As the aerial roots reach for the ground, the leaves take advantage of access to sunlight available from the Ficus’s advantageous perch on high. When those same roots reach soil, they begin to penetrate it. The strangler is now a hemiepiphyte (having s

THE STRANGLER FIG Perhaps the most famous hemiepiphyte is the towering strangler fig tree which starts life as Strangler Fig, Brazil 1999 a tiny seed in the canopy. The roots grow down to the forest floor where they take root and begin to take nutrients from the soil. Gradually the roots wrap around the host tree, widen, and slowly form a lattice-work that surrounds the host's trunk. The fig's crown grows foliage which soon overshadows the tree. Eventually, the host tree dies leaving the fig wit

In order to survive in the dense tropical rainforest, the strangler fig offers its host trees a special and deadly embrace. The strangling process is slow and continuous. It helps renew the vegetation and keep the ecosystem balanced. #nature #cgtnnature #jianfengling | CGTN