Strange Plant Monday: Strangler Fig

Stranlger Fig

                          
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    You would think that being a tree you wouldn't have to put up with being strangled. I mean really, how do you strangle a tree? Well, leave it to nature to find a way, the strangler fig.
   Strangler figs start out on a host tree and send their roots to the ground. They grow around the tree and form a barrier. As the years pass, the strangler fig kills the tree. The tree will rot and leave a hollow structure, a strangler fig tree,pictured below.
    Rain forests have an intricate, entwined vine system. If the strangler fig kills the tree before it can establish a secure base the tree will fall, and bring several others down with it. So it seems nothing is safe in the rain forest.
   


                
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    -Wesley