EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Strangler Fig

Strangler Fig (Ficus watkinsiana), Family Moraceae
Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia

Explanation:  How well-named is this fig!  If you could reverse the clock, you would see that it did not begin from ground level.  Its seeds get deposited in the branches of trees, and it sends down shoots that wind around the main trunk of its unfortunate host, almost behaving like an ecoparasite.

This is the strangler fig that goes by several other names, such as nipple fig and Watkins' fig named after the specimen collector George Watkins.  It is endemic to rainforests of northeast Australia along coastal Queensland and northeast New South Wales.

A study (Male and Roberts 2009) of the strangler fig in Queensland revealed that the species is more apt to select and colonize host trees that are likely to grow larger in diameter, and height.  As the host tree grows, the fig continues to stretch its shoots vertically downward, but also thickens them so as to engulf the host.  

In some cases, the host tree dies, decays, and leaves a hollow fig-wrap standing in the forest. 

 Meanwhile, the fig's fruits are eaten by a variety of wildlife species including cassowaries, many birds, and flying foxes.  The fig's flowers are pollinated by wasps.  

So next time you may be enjoying a fig fruit, consider the amazing life history of its source.

Information:
     Male, T. D., and G. E. Roberts.  2009.  Host associations of the strangler fig Ficus watkinsiana in a subtropical Queensland rain forest.  Austral Ecology 30:229-236. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2005.01442.x