Carl Morrow wrote:
Dear All


Strangler fig, Ficus aurea, is a particular species found in Florida. It is a
sort of parasite. Its seeds sprout on the forest floor. Then the seedling


Also not so true... In my experience with the South African stranglers
they are not parasitic at all. A parasite is "a plant or animal living
in or on another and drawing nutriment from it" (ancient, 1942, Pocket
Oxford!). Parasitic plants have specialized structures that tap into
the host plant and steal water and or nutrients from the host plant's
vessel system. A plant that is just using another for support and not
sustenance is not parasitic.

According to Nelson's "Trees of Florida," Strangler Fig
(Ficus aurea) often begins in the upper parts of a tree as
an epiphyte -- it gets its water and nutrients from the air
-- though it can grow by seed from the ground as well. It
is NOT a parasite, but then, Iris said it is "sort of" a
parasite.

If an epiphyte, it grows in both directions, sending roots
down and branches up, wrapping itself around trees. When
the tree eventually dies -- "choked," some say, by the
"strangling" roots -- it rots away in tropical humidity,
leaving the roots standing upright around a hollow. Or, it
may just outlive its host, with the same results.

F. aurea is relatively common in the lower third of Florida.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nature
encourages no looseness, pardons no errors. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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