Ficus macrophylla

Common card · No. 212700

Ficus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the mulberry and fig family Moraceae. It is native to eastern Australia, from the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland in the north to the Illawarra region of New South Wales. The infraspecies Ficus macrophylla f. columnaris is endemic to Lord Howe Island. Its common name refers to Moreton Bay in Queensland. It is best known for its imposing buttress roots. Ficus macrophylla is called a strangler fig because seed germination usually takes place in the canopy of a host tree, where the seedling lives as an epiphyte until its roots establish contact with the ground, when it enlarges and strangles its host, eventually becoming a freestanding tree by itself. Individuals may reach 60 m (200 ft) in height. The greatest exact height to be reported is 70.6 m (232 ft). It has an obligate mutualism with fig wasps; figs are pollinated only by fig wasps, and fig wasps can reproduce only...

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