Strangler Fig - Strangler figs are parasitic plants that usually begin life as epiphytes growing high up on a host tree. As the fig gradually extends roots down to the ground it grows tightly around the trunk of the host preventing further girth growth. It also develops its own leafy canopy which shades that of the original tree. It is believed that these two limiting factors lead to the eventual death of the host. Many years later the host has totally decomposed and all that remains is the skeletal form of the mature fig tree.

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