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A female Australasian Figbird eating a fig
in a Ficus watkinsiana
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Strangler figs grow in and around other trees. This is known as being hemi-epiphytic. An epiphyte such as an orchid growing on trees in the wild is a plant which grows on another but is not parasitic. A hemiepiphyte starts by growing on the plant until its aerial roots reach the ground and then becomes independent. In the Strangler Fig's case, it surrounds the host tree which eventually dies.
Non-strangler figs grow in the ground or over rocks. Early settlers often planted them for shade and as you travel around the Scenic Rim you'll see them in the gardens of old homesteads.
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| Unripe, green figs of the Ficus watkinsiana |
Being flowers they have to be pollinated in a very special way. So, along comes the tiny fig wasp. The female wasp, carrying pollen, squeezes through a minute opening in the fig. She lays her eggs on one type of flower, pollinating the other at the same time. The young wasp larvae develop, and the adult wasps mate, inside the fig. The males are wingless and die while the females exit from the opening gathering pollen on the way. Each fig species has to be fertilised this way with its own species of wasp. The fig depends on the wasp and the wasp depends on the fig.
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| Cleaning her beak after her meal |
Birds love the figs. In the dense forest the patter of half-eaten fruit falling on the leaf-litter alerts you to the birds in the fig trees. Figbirds, Bowerbirds, Pigeons, Catbirds, Koels, and Crows are just some of the birds which love figs.
Aborigines used the fruit, the bark and the latex for food, medicines and tools.
If you want to know more about native figs try these links: Noosa's Native Plants, Figs suitable for your garden, How figs are pollinated.
