{"id":675,"date":"2014-01-22T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T16:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nybg.org\/science-talk\/?p=675"},"modified":"2014-01-21T10:55:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T15:55:23","slug":"an-unwanted-hug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/01\/an-unwanted-hug\/","title":{"rendered":"An Unwanted Hug"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott A. Mori, Ph.D.<\/a>, is the Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany at The New York Botanical Garden<\/a>. His research centers on plants of the New World tropics.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
A strangler fig embracing its host tree with an unfriendly hug<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Normally, the term\u00a0“tree hugger” brings to mind an environmental activist who takes action to protect trees from destruction by other humans. In contrast, the plant\u00a0shown here\u00a0is a tree hugger that may hasten the death of the tree it embraces. The plant \u201chugging\u201d the tree\u00a0is a fig, one of the nearly 700 species of the genus Ficus<\/em> of the mulberry family (Moraeae).<\/p>\n

Many species of Ficus<\/em> are “keystone” species, meaning they play an especially large role in their ecosystems.\u00a0Their fruits\u2014figs\u2014are eaten by a wide variety of animals, especially species of birds and bats. Bird figs are usually red (Fig. 2) because birds are attracted by red, and bat figs are usually green at maturity because bats often find their food by echolocation and aroma, not by color (Fig. 3).<\/p>\n

Figs that embrace trees like\u00a0this\u00a0are called strangler figs, but this is a misnomer. They do not strangle the host plant. They do, however, harm their hosts\u00a0by robbing them of light, water, and nutrients.
\n
\nThe life cycle of a strangler fig starts with the dispersal of its seeds.\u00a0For example, a bat plucks a fig and carries it to a night roost, where it eats the fruit. As the fig passes through the digestive track of the bat, the pulp is\u00a0digested, but the seeds remain intact.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A small, reddish fig dispersed by birds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the bat defecates, usually while in flight, the seeds are expelled and often stick to a tree, which then serves as the host to the fig plant.\u00a0The seed germinates, a seedling is formed, and the plant grows both upward toward the crown of the host and downward toward the ground.<\/p>\n

As the Ficus<\/em> continues to grow, it begins to compete with the host plant for light\u2014fig leaves shade those of the host\u2014and the fig\u2019s roots absorb water and nutrients that would have been used by the host.\u00a0The fig\u2019s host is not strangled, but it is outcompeted for what it needs to grow.<\/p>\n

\"Examples<\/a>
Examples of figs dispersed by bats. Image modified from Seed Dispersal by bats in the Neotropics<\/em> by T. A. Lobova, C. K. Geiselman, and S. A. Mori. The scale bars are 1 mm in length.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This not-so-friendly fig plant takes “’til death do us part” a little too seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[221,220,224,223,71,222],"yoast_head":"\nAn Unwanted Hug - Science Talk Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/01\/an-unwanted-hug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Unwanted Hug - Science Talk Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This not-so-friendly fig plant takes "'til death do us part" a little too seriously.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/01\/an-unwanted-hug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Science Talk Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-22T16:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-21T15:55:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Fig1_FicusTreeHugger.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Mori\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/\",\"name\":\"Science Talk Archive\",\"description\":\"Exploring the science of plants, from the field to the lab\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/01\/an-unwanted-hug\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Fig1_FicusTreeHugger.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Fig1_FicusTreeHugger.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"A strangler fig embracing its host tree with an unfriendly hug\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/01\/an-unwanted-hug\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/01\/an-unwanted-hug\/\",\"name\":\"An Unwanted Hug - 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