Strangler Fig - a guest that strangles its host

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The fig-tree species which lives beneath the canopy of tropical rainforests have developed a unique way to escape from the darkness. These plants take root on host trees and then strangles them so they may reach the light.

Tropical fig-trees, such as Ficus ottoniifolia in the Gambon, use animals and birds to eat their fruit and spread their seeds. Only a small number of seeds among thousands will land on a suitable, high place which is another tree. If the host tree is near light, the seeds will take root on the trunk of their host. The seeds then find water by sinking aerial roots into the soil.

Once the young fig-trees grow to a certain size, they will begin to strangle their host by wrapping more aerial roots around the trunk of the host. The aerial roots in the ground support the fig-trees during this process. The host tree eventually dies because the aerial roots of the fig-tree become so tight that there is eventually no flow of sap to the host tree. When the host tree dies, the fig-tree is able to stand upright because the aerial roots in the ground have thickened into pillars. The host tree will collapse and fall onto the ground, leaving the fig-tree standing on its own.

The fig-trees of the Mediterranean, Ficus carnica (edible fig tree), do not use the methods of their cousins in the tropical rainforests because there is no scarcity of light. The fig-trees of the tropical rainforests have adapted a unusual and successful way of surviving among the dense vegetation.