Strangler Fig.1

The seeds of the strangler fig are sown through animal (usually bird) droppings in the rainforest canopy. Once they find a host tree, they germinate and slowly begin to grow tentacles that go down the tree and around the trunk. They also grow a canopy of thick leaves. The leaves block the sunlight and serve to rob the host tree of necessary nutrients while the tentacles strangle the tree itself over decades or a couple of hundred years. Finally the host tree is dead and the strangler fig is all that remains in its place.