Florida Fauna

MARY HONRUD

FOR THE COURIER

While walking along foot paths towards the beach on Sanibel Island in Florida, I took note of the thick "vines" I thought were snaking their way up and around other trees. The sinuous way they formed geometric patterns as they encircled the other tree trunks was very eye-catching. I took several photos, then had to do some research to discover more about this life-form.

It turns out the "vines" are actually fig trees, aptly known as Strangler Figs. The Ficus Aurea is a hemi-epiphyte. Epiphytes are air plants, meaning they grow on other plants, but are not parasites. They don't get their water and nutrition from the host plant, but simply use it as a physical support. The food and water they need are captured in creases or crevices on the host plant. The "hemi" means these fig trees start as true air plants, but eventually do send down roots to take up nutrients from the soil.

Birds will eat the figs, which are small, soft, and sweet. The excreted seeds are dropped into the tops of cabbage palms as the birds fly above. Those seeds will sprout and grow up there, high above the ground. There are over 1400 species of air plants around the world. In some regions, these trees are sacred. It's said that Buddha meditated beneath fig trees.

Eventually, these sprouted seeds send down roots, which will completely encircle the host palm. Those roots slowly strangle the host tree, cutting off and taking over the food supply. The leafy canopy overhead also cuts off the needed sunlight. The central palm will die and eventually rot away, leaving a hollow core to the fig tree.

The Strangler Fig can reach heights of 70 feet, and have a spread well over 70 feet. Before the host tree dies, the figs do work as a support system. Many cabbage palms (the state tree of Florida) are saved from toppling in severe tropical storms by that strangling root system. The leafy canopy also stops the winds from blowing over the palms.

The Florida Strangler Fig was first officially described by the naturalist Thomas Nuttall in 1846. He gave it the designation Ficus Aurea. It's also known as the Golden Fig (Higueron). It's native to Florida, northern and western Caribbean, southern Mexico, Central America, and south to Panama.

They're pollinated by fig wasps, which can only reproduce in fig flowers. I guess if one species dies out, so will the other. Once the figs become free-standing trees in their own right, they provide habitat, food, and shelter for many other life forms. They're used in traditional medicines, as live fencing, ornamental plantings in landscaping, and as bonsai specimens. They thrive in Zones 9-11, but can survive in our homes farther north as house plants. When grown in pots, they generally behave themselves. I do not own one of these - yet.