- Location
- Southwestern Virginia
I've just returned from Florida, and the most interesting thing I saw, and ALMOST the most upsetting, was a Strangler fig devouring a large live oak tree. It was in Melbourne Beach, a couple of beach towns south of where I grew up. Walking through a remnant woods on the east side of the Indian River, at the back of my sister's condo development, I saw what I thought was an exotic Banyan tree beside a big live oak.
When I went over there, it was a giant Strangler fig in the process of killing this oak. I didn't notice Strangler figs as a boy. I assumed this was another exotic, and yearned for my chain saw, but later I read they are native. There are also a few on roadside trees in my sister's development. They start as harmless air plants. I saw several in the tops of Cabbage palms. When they reach the ground, they root like a regular plant and begin to fully wrap their host and kill it, ultimately feeding off the host's decay.
A few days later, I saw another big one farther south in Vero Beach, at McKee Botanical Gardens, that had completely surrounded a palm. I am not sure their squeezing hurts palms, at any rate just the top of the palm was sticking out, and if and when the fig closes over it, it's a goner.
