A Surprising Stage In How Is Strangler Fig Tree A Parasitism Relationship
The strangler fig is seriously strange. First, it is a parasite that will kill its host, if it gets the chance. But even more bizarre is the way it reproduces, and its coevolutionary relationship with a wasp so obscure it doesn't even have a common name. Despite the oddities, the strangler fig is also one of the most important trees in the florida landscape, helping both to feed and shelter. The strangler figs unique growth strategy strangler figs are hemiepiphytes, meaning they spend part of their life cycle growing on another plant but eventually root in the soil.
Students will be able to: 1) provide a definition for the phrase life cycle, 2) identify a strangler fig tree and 3) summarize the life cycle stages of the strangler fig tree. The host tree will eventually die, then rot out leaving an empty space in the core of the victorious parasite. I find this whole progression fascinating and instructive. A parasitic nightmare that lives on other tropical trees, stealing their soil nutrients, water, and even sunlight through a canopy of dense leaves and tendrillike roots that twist around the host plant (above). Eventually, the fig's roots can completely encase the host, strangling its trunk and cutting off nutrient flow until it dies and rots awayleaving just the. The roots of the strangler fig wrap themselves around the host tree, gradually forming a kind of lattice frame that completely surrounds the hosts trunk. Once the roots of the strangler fig reach the ground, its growth accelerates as it plunders the nutrients and moisture that the host tree depended upon for its survival. Either way, the dead host then rots away and on the spot where it stood now stands a monstrous strangling fig tree. Viscum album stranglers a killer stalks the streets of kathmandu incredibly, this murderous strategy is employed by most of the numerous species of fig (genus ficus) found throughout the tropics of the world.
Strangler Fig - VCUarts
