Strangler Fig

This is a large tree best used in settings where its form can be appreciated. It is both a specimen tree and and shade tree.

Not salt tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water.



Some tolerance to salty wind but not direct salt spray.

In some settings, the tree begins as an epiphyte and sends roots down to the ground wrapping around the host. This is interesting in natural settings but may not be interesting in a formal setting.

Birds and small mammals consume fruit and often deposit seeds high in the canopy.

Moist-wet sites to dry sites and on shallow soils over limestone. Tropical hammocks, swamps. May be epiphytic or have aerial roots that may wrap around the trunks of other trees and eventually form secondary trunks.

• Interesting bark, Showy fruits, Interesting foliage
• Larval host for ruddy daggerwing (Marpesia petreus) and Antillean daggerwing (Marpesia eleuchea) butterflies.
• It is pollinated by a host-specific wasp (Pegascapus jimenezi) inside the fig.