Different type of Strangler Tree fruit: Top left and bottom to pics, Ficus henneana (which grows in near-coastal NSW, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Two top right pics, Ficus rubiginosa or Port Jackson Fig (grows from southern NSW coast to tip of Cape York).
Death comes to the rainforest in a thousand different ways; slow and fast, gentle and brutal; premeditated and impulsive; silent and terrified shrieking.
This kind of forest – or jungle – is not a gentle place though on a fine day when the sun slants benignly down through the canopy and the sound of a running creek soothes the ear, it can seem that way.
And yet…there is a constant predation of the weak by those stronger and fiercer; above in the tops of the great trees, below in the leaf litter and under the boulders. The rainforest is so filled with life and yet even as we walk through, things are dying all around us. Big insects eat smaller insects and are in turn eaten by birds and small animals. Snakes and lizards slither and scuttle in search of sustenance. Frogs lurk in pools, waiting for dragonflies. Dragonflies swoop down on smaller flies.
And that’s just at ground level. Up above, the ruthless struggle just to make it through another day or hour or minute goes on. Pythons wrap themselves around high branches, eyeing birds’ nests. At night, bats dip and weave through dense foliage. Raptors hover. Leaves wither and drift to the ground, fruit ripens and falls into hungry mouths.
In the rainforest it’s the rule of the Three Fs – Feeding, Fornicating and Fighting.
And there is another “F” that features in the ecology of the rainforest; a silent, stealthy, sinister killer. The strangler fig!
This type of fig, mighty of girth, high of canopy, with its roots spreading like serpents for metres across the forest floor, is hemiepiphytic. This means it actually starts life as a seed dropped or excreted by a bird in branches belonging to a variety of host trees. The crevices where the seeds sprout into life are filled with leaf litter rich in decayed plant and animal matter. This nurtures the seed which produces aerial roots that spread downwards until they reach the ground, where they become terrestrial , growing into a latticework of separate “trunks” that support the tree and, in the process – and this is the cruel part – over time “strangle” the unfortunate host tree by denying it light, food and water.
The epiphyte is now a tree, growing wider and taller and stronger, supported by its wide-spread roots, some of which grow as big and thick as buttresses around the base. But the host is a prisoner, increasingly hidden behind the curtain of inter-twining stems that form the trunk of the new tree, until the old tree collapses and decays into the ground, thus continuing to nurture its killer!
It all takes a very long time. The ways of the rainforest are ancient and patient, beyond the easy measuring of Humankind. As with all the eternal cycle of life and death in this shadowy treescape, Nature is not cruel but merely remorseless, following its essential biodynamic.
Strangler figs grow in all types of warm-to-hot climate rainforest in Indika, South East Asia and the Pacific, Australia has several such figs, including examples of “banyan” type trees with multiple “trunks” from canopy to below ground. Several of these are famous, such as The Cathedral and The Curtain trees on the Atherton Tableland in far north Queensland. These are fine examples of Ficus virens and another famous site for this tree is in Eagle Street, Brisbane, right in the middle of an intersection. Here two seedlings of F. virens and one of F. benghalensis were planted in 1889 by Walter Hill, father of the nearby Brisbane City (formerly Botanical) Gardens.
Growing over a wider range of habitat than F. virens are the Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla) and the Small-leaved Fig (Ficus obliqua) which are found from New South Wales right up the Queensland coast. Their huge size at maturity dominates the landscape; in the open they spread their limbs wide and don’t get too tall; in the rainforest their long trunks twist and lean upward to carry their branches into the sunlight.
A young Ficus macrophylla growing happily in a busy street. This tree has not yet developed the rusty underside to its leaves, as happens with most mature trees. The roots develop laterally at the base and form little “pockets” which trap water and leaf litter a fertile place for all sort of ground insects. And a trap, too, because foraging birds, reptiles and small insectiverous critters know it’s a good place to get a feed.
Most widespread and common of the hemiepiphytic figs is the one that carries the common name Strangler Fig – Ficus watkinsiana. This is a giant that is found in most types of rainforest from north of Sydney to north Queensland. Like all its kind, it plays a very important role in the ecology of the rainforest. The fruit, edible (albeit not very palatable) to humans is essential to the diets of many birds and a few mammals. Insects burrow into the flesh and breed there. The wide, thick branches provide nesting and roosting opportunities. Possums bats and gliders hang around in them too. Insects of all kinds can be found in or on the bark, a feast for the reptiles that feed on them. Mighty pythons spread themselves lazily, digesting their latest meal. The thick leaves provide shelter from sun and rain. Down below, the many above-ground root angles are filled with rich litter and housing opportunities for all sorts of small creatures.
All the strangler figs have similar leaves and fruit and these similarities are shared with others in the Ficus genus. The leaves are simple, tough, with strongly-marked lateral veins. They may be as small as those of F. obliqua (to 8cm), broadly elliptic, on longish petioles. A distinguishing feature are the long, rolled stipules, growing from the axils (very prominent in F. macrophylla). Another is the thick, milky sap in leaves and stems.
The fruit is not unlike that of the domestic fig but a lot smaller, varying in colour (when ripe) from yellowish-green to deep purple to red, usually with small, pale spots and a nipple on the end.
The roots are opportunistic in the extreme, seeking far and wide for nutrients, snaking over man-made barriers, laughing at our puny efforts to obstruct them. See the ancient temples of India and South East Asia where the mighty banyans clasp the walls and buttresses in a loving embrace which may be mutually beneficial as, with time, the trees support the crumbling buildings that once supported THEM. No wonder many belief systems attribute spiritual dimensions to them, or see them as home too dryads and Strangler Figs and humans have lived together for a long time. In Australia we don’t permit such liberties but we do allow these trees to disrupt the pavements and some public spaces in our cities, putting up with their disruptive powers for the sake of their shade and beauty.
Strangler and other Ficus species belong to the Family Moraceae, along with mulberries, jackfruit and breadfruit. It’s a noble family that has fed the creatures of the Earth for many an aeon. Figs were part of the diet of indigenous Australians, with the fruit of the related Sandpaper fig (Ficus coronata) being preferred.
When you look at one of the great rainforest strangler figs you don’t see it as a murderer, thriving at the expense of another tree which once generously provided the tiny seed with food and shelter. What you see is something heroic in its hugeness and admirable in its will to survive in a highly competitive environment.
As a species, it’s among my five favourite trees. There is just something so splendid about a tree that starts life as a tough little opportunist and then grows into something so magnificent to the eye and also a symbol of botanic redemption – ultimately giving back so much more than what it takes.
Ficus watkinsiana leaf – smaller than F. macrophylla, larger than F. obliqua.
Lyrebird Mountain 