EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Strangled !

Strangler Figs (Ficus spp.), Family Moraceae
left: San Blas, Mexico ... right: Dehra Dun, India

Explanation:  OK, after viewing my photos in this week's episode, I won't even ask why they call this a strangler fig.  

It is the tangled vine encompassing some vulnerable, central tree of a different species (and family).  The vine is ... a fig.  Genus Ficus, to be more precise.  

Ficus can grow as a seed placed on some high branch of a tree, by a bird or mammal ... and from there sprouts tendrils that wrap around the host tree trunk and on down to the ground ... and also on up into the canopy.  

In the end, what may be left is a sturdy external cylinder of a network of strong vines, as the internal tree gives out, dies, decays, and eventually crumbles.  Meanwhile, the fig will fruit seasonally, providing nutrients and food to a very wide array of wildlife.  

So, in this way, the host tree is giving its strength to continue a web of life, to keep the forest and jungle ecosystem sustainable.  

But ... in the very end ... it is indeed ... strangled !