THE strangler fig, a deadly native of the rainforest, is being recruited to
kill alien trees in Australia.
Trees like the camphor laurel, which came from China over a century ago, have
spread over huge swathes of Australia. But while many are being chopped down,
that鈥檚 not an option when the trees screen houses from highways.
So an organisation of environmental managers called Greening Australia are
setting up special seedling boxes to grow strangler figs on pest trees. The figs
grow in other trees鈥� branches for decades, where they reach heights of 10 metres
or more. Each fig puts out serpentine roots that act like a straitjacket,
eventually killing the host tree so that it can take over its patch and grow to
full size. The first fig assassin is now established on a camphor laurel in
Brisbane, and is expected to make its kill within fifty years.
Advertisement
