Strangler Fig

Ficus aurea

When the seeds of a strangler fig are dropped into the top of a cabbage palm by a bird, they germinate as an epiphyte, sending dozens of tendril-like roots plummeting towards the ground. The roots grab hold of the host tree, and as both the tree and the fig grow, the dense net of fig roots can strangle the host tree’s growth. If it doesn’t, the host tree will eventually die under the leafy shade of the strangler fig, as it grows into a full-sized tree up to sixty feet tall.