Strangler Fig
Organisms / Plants / Trees / Strangler Fig
Ficus aurea  Hardwood Hammocks
3/19/00  Photographed by: Robin Rawson
Descriptive Information
  • Field Marks:  "Leaves are alternate, simple, entire, thick, leathery, dark shiny green.  Flowers are small and inconspicuous at the leaf axils.  The fruit is without stalks, globular, and fleshy.  It is distinguished from the short leaf fig by stalkless fruits.  It is frequently covered with sooty mold."
  • Size:  "Potentially large evergreen tree to about 20 m in height."
  • General Habitat:  "Hammocks in Southern Florida, rather conspicuous in the wild.  Any soil is suitable.  Its light requirements are the shifting shade of the hammocks."
  • Geographic Range:  "Lower third of Florida including the Keys from about DeSoto and Highland counties southward in the central peninsula and Brevard and Pinellas counties southward along the coasts."
  • Ecosystems Where Observed:  Eco Pond, Hardwood Hammocks, Anhinga Trail
  • Other Information:  "Often begins life as an epiphyte on other trees and sending down long roots that frequently become lattice like on the trunk of its host, but eventually forming a single, twisted trunk that is actually a network of aerial roots. "
  • References: ( Nelson, 1994, p. 231)
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