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Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk

Strangler Fig

Slowly suffocating its host by creating a leafy canopy above it and roots that surround it, the strangler fig (Ficus aurea) earns its name. You’ll see it throughout tropical habitats in South Florida.

December 9, 2011    Sandra Friend

Ficus aurea

Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk
Strangler fig along the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk

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.

Strangler fig wrapped around a cabbage palm
Strangler fig wrapped around a cabbage palm

Category: Flora, TreesTag: ID

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