Wild Australia (strangler fig)

The leafy jungle is just as competitive as the concrete jungle. No holds are barred in the race to the top. In the concrete jungle the ultimate prize is money and power. In the rainforest it is sunlight and power. Strategies are much the same in both worlds ...

Plants need sunlight to prosper and some need a lot. That poses problems if you start life on the forest floor. As a lowly seed you won’t make it to the top unless a gale blows down mummy and her friends (a bit like waiting for the boss to die). This gloomy scenario applies to most rainforest plants - but not to the strangler fig.

In corporate terms, the fig’s strategy is takeover followed by asset stripping. It issues an attractive share offer (figs) and the birds (punters) act as intermediaries. They take the figs, digest the bits they want and discharge the rest (otherwise known as toxic assets).

The toxic assets (seeds) are deposited in the upper branches of a potential victim (tree) and sprout. The seedlings plant roots in its bark. They now have a place in the sun and prosper at their host’s expense.

 

Their next trick is to send down aerial roots. These reach the forest floor and dig themselves in. The fig’s life as a strangler has now begun. Shoots spring up and envelop the host. In time it dies and the fig takes over.

If you walk in the rainforests of Queensland and northern New South Wales, you will find strangler figs and their hosts in various stages of takeover. My photographs show a fig that has completed the process. The host tree once occupied the central core. As you can see from the magnified image, The host has rotted away and the fig had taken its place as a fully developed mature tree.