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Strangler figs are some of the grandest trees in the rainforest. They can grow to be 150 feet tall.
- Strangler
trunks are gnarled and bumpy. Their evergreen
leaves are leathery, oblong, and pointed. Their bark is thin, smooth, and gray--spotted with yellow, pale green, and white.
- Strangler figs begin life as
parasites. Plant parasites live on other plants and harm them.
- A strangler
seed sprouts high in the air on the branch of a host tree. It dangles a stringy root from this branch to the ground. Sometimes the first root is as long as 120 feet. As soon as the first root hits the ground, the sprout begins to grow fast, sending down many more long roots. As it grows taller, the young strangler's leaves block the host tree's sunlight.
- The strangler's roots
wrap around the host tree's trunk and then grow together to make a strangler fig trunk. As they grow they squeeze the host tree--strangling it!
- Stranglers grow
fruit three times every year. Fig fruit can be as small as a pea or as big as a tennis ball.
- Stranglers provide
food and
homes for the animals of the rainforest year round. The fruit of one tree may feed hundreds of animals.
- Howler
monkeys and ghost
bats eat strangler fig fruit--seeds and all! Then they defecate the seeds. Strangler fig seeds must be eaten before they can sprout.
- Spider monkeys,
parrots, toucans, peccaries, paca, mousedeer, and even some Amazon Valley fish also eat strangler fig fruit.
- The special connection between animals and strangler figs is called
symbiosis. Symbiosis means "living together."
- Fig
flowers grow in clusters inside hollow pods that are homes for tiny wasps. The wasps carry pollen from one flower to another. This is another kind of symbiosis.
- When rainforests are cut down or burned,
tough strangler figs are often the only trees left standing. And they are the first trees to grow back.
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