Images Dated 21st May 2011

Curtain Fig Tree at Atherton Tableland, Tropical North Queensland, Australia

The Curtain Fig Tree is one of the largest trees in Tropical North Queensland, Australia, and one of the best known attractions on the Atherton Tableland. The Curtain Fig Tree is of the strangler fig species Ficus virens. Normally these figs germinate on top of another tree and try to grow roots into the ground. Once this important step is accomplished, the fig will grow vigorously, finally kill the hosting tree and then grow on independently. In this case, the hosting tree tilted towards the next one; the fig also grows around that one. Its curtain of aerial roots drops 15 metres (49 feet) to the ground. Although these figs kill their hosts, they are an epiphyte which basically feeds from the ground

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