tplattenberger

I think I might be getting ready to "bear spiritual fruit" ...if I don't strangle someone first.

Tom

Achmmad, Dan, & All...

Yes, most trees get their nutrition from below, traveling just under the bark. But Palms do not. In my area, I can observe many figs climbing palms and yes, often I can see that, like other trees, the palm has died. Perhaps the fig is making a canopy so dense that it kills the host.

When a growing tree trunk is being constricted by something like another tree's branch or fence wire pressing against it, the tree trunk will bulge out in the place where it is not constricted. I have not observed any fig host trees doing this.

(But with an open mind, I will watch for that.)

Tom

Hello again, Dan and All...

It has been a while since I looked at this photo. Now, I am reminded of a place I occasionally visited, some 30 years ago, near Berkeley, California. We called it the Tree Circus. It was a grove of trees that I now presume was ficus. It was abandoned and overgrown, but at one time, someone had spent a lot of time, manipulating these trees into fantastic shapes. Many were braided together in groups. There were big circles of trees that were woven together in indicate patterns. Children could squeeze inside to play and climb. The last time I visited, the whole area was to be dozed for a condo project. So the tree circus is long gone but not forgotten. Somewhere, I have some pretty cool black and white photos.

Meanwhile... Dan, I have still not let-go, my theory that the fig is not really strangling its host.

Claudia...

I live in the Pacific coastal area of the Mexican state of Nayarit. Although this is a heavily forested and mountainous area, agriculture is big. We produce mostly coffee, mangos, and pineapple in our rich volcanic soil.

Cultivated fields are everywhere the terrain is flat and not being used for pasture or orchards. For the last few years, pineapple has been the most popular cultivated crop, but this will change when something else becomes more profitable.

There is a longer term investment in mangos because of the time required to establish a producing orchard.

Yucca is not rare here but it is not grown on a large scale. It is more usually seen in the yards of rural homes. Most people do not buy a whole fruit because it is so large, only a fraction could be consumed before it spoiled. It also makes a big slimy mess when the fruit is opened to separate the sections of bite sized fruit. And, as I said earlier, the flavor is not enjoyed by everyone.

When it is in season, the fruit sections are often seen for sale at roadside fruit stands. Sometimes they are packaged in small plastic bags, but more usually arranged in one layer on a styrofoam plate, covered with clear plastic wrap. You just pop a section in your mouth and crew the yellow pulp from the large white seed.

Yucca grows on small trees; too small to produce useable lumber.

To directly answer your question, I can say that it is grown throughout the coastal areas of Nayarit. There doesn't seem to be any great challenge to grow it. I would be surprised if it did not grow easily throughout Mexico, but I cannot with certainty, comment on the distribution.

Tom

Hola Dan...

You have an amazing photo collection. I do a lot of tramping about in the woods here in west coastal Mexico. Yes, the strangler fig has an amazing growth habit, but I am developing the opinion that "strangler" might be a misnomer. Hundreds of times I see trees hosting the strangler fig and both seem to be alive and well. It is all about competition for sunlight. It makes no sense to me that the strangler fig would evolve into a plant that strangles the host that allows it to thrive in the canopy. As you say, the strangler fig cannot long stand on its own. Yes, certainly some hosts die, but I am wondering if this is because the fig has simply out-lived the host.

If a very heavy rock is leaning against a tree, or if someone staples a fence wire to a tree, after time, it can be observed that the tree will bulge out around the object. I have never seen any evidence in these forests where a host tree seemed to bulge out in the openings left by an engulfing strangler fig.

In my observations, it has never seemed to me that the strangler fig was doing anything more than just using the host tree as a support.

How 'bout you?

Thanks for the great sharing that you do.

Tom

Dan...

This fruit is common in my part of Mexico. Gringos often refer to it as Jack Fruit, but the locals call it Yuka (tried for a phonetic spelling there). The flavor is not enjoyed by everyone but I like it. Many believe it has aphrodisiac qualities. So if a vendor offers it to me and I am not in the mood to buy, I often joke by saying: no thank you, I have no need for that.

Tom

Howdy Dan...

As to the surface that the snake was on... was it a level surface? It seems unusual to me to see a photo of a snake with its head canted to the side, as in the first and fifth photo.

Tom