fig mug shot

i took this photo walking through the stunning world heritage listed daintree rainforest (135 million years old, the oldest rainforest in the world!) in far north queensland. the grouping of what looks like long vines is in fact a strangulation fig beginning to take hold on another tree. initially it takes hold in the top of the tree as an epiphyte and then sends its root system down the trunk into the ground, and it's all pretty much all over red rover for the host tree then, as the fig grows stronger, and its roots grow thicker (amazingly so), until it strangles and kills the original tree. we saw a very advanced fig where the original tree was completely gone inside the massive root system - there was simply a huge space where the original trunk used to be. aside from the story of the strangulation fig this photo invokes for me, i also really like it for the sense of lush green enclosure that a rainforest canopy creates - with the sunlight struggling to burst through at intermittant points.