Borneo Wonders - Stanglers

Men murder men. Animals kill animals. Men kill animals, animals kill men, men eat fish, sharks attack men, plants digest insects, plants kill plants... Hold. what's that? Plant killing plants? Mean, murder in the plant kingdom? Does it happen?

Murder in the rainforests is a stratagem perfected by fig trees. Fig trees are the corner stones of rainforests. Figs bear fruit several times a year, different species of fig fruits at different times so that there is always abundant supply of food for animals that depend on fruit as a major part of their diet. A large variety of herbivores and omnivores like pigeons, parrots, hornbills, toucans, monkeys, gibbons, and fruit-eating bats, feed on the sweet fruit of the fig tree. In some forests up to 70% of its animal's diets depend on figs, and the number of fruit-eaters determines the number of predators living off fruit-eaters.

Fig fruits are laxative in nature. When birds eat the fig fruits, tiny, sticky seeds are deposited high in the branches and crevices of other trees in rainforests through bird and animal droppings. The seedlings grow slowly at first, getting their nutrients from the sun, rain and leaf litter that has collected on the host tree. Slowly, many thin roots snake down the trunk of the host tree or dangle as aerial roots from its branches. When the roots reach the ground they dig in and put on a growth spurt, competing with the host tree for water and nutrients. They also send out a network of roots that encircle the host tree and fuse together. As the roots grow thicker, the fig squeezes the trunk of its host and cuts off its flow of nutrients.

Even as the fig's roots choke the host's trunk, its thick leaves spread out an umbrella over the host tree, robbing it of sun light. Eventually the host dies from strangulation, insufficient sunlight and root competition, and the strangler fig stands on its own. A hollow center in the fig's trunk is all that remains to evidence the past existence of the host. Fittingly, these trees are called the 'Strangler figs'.

Some figs grow root systems that can spread out to a distance of about 30 feet. Other figs grow aerial roots from their branches which, on reaching the ground, root themselves and become another trunk on the same tree. Strangler figs have light colored bark and umbrella shaped canopies. Waxy leaves protect the strangler fig from drying winds and sunlight when exposed high up in the jungle canopy.

Banyan trees found widely in India are a variety of fig trees. In the banyan trees, enlarged aerial roots extend from its own branches to the ground, giving the tree the unusual appearance of being supported by pillars. By this manner of growth the tree is able to spread outward almost indefinitely, and many Indian barh or banyan trees (Ficus bengalensis) are of immense size and very old. One of the largest trees on record is at the Calcutta Botanical Gardens. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records (1985) as the world's largest (spreading) tree crown, with 1,000 prop roots and covering an area of four acres.

The canopy of some banyans provides shade for entire villages. Alexander the Great reportedly camped with an army of 7,000 soldiers under a banyan tree. And what's the origin of the name 'banyan'? Because merchants used to spread their wares under its shade. Indian merchants are called 'banias'.