In their native tropical habitats, many figs are called "stranglers." Seeds germinate high on the moist branches of rain forest trees, sending numerous aerial roots to the ground. The seeds are dispersed by a variety of fruit-eating birds and bats. Like botanical boa constrictors the serpentine roots gradually wrap around the host's limbs and trunk, crushing the bark and constricting vital phloem and cambial layers. The network of roots, resembling a tangle of writhing snakes, also fuse together (anastomose) forming a massive woody envelope or "straightjacket" encircling the host. Expansion of the host trunk as it grows in girth may accentuate the death grip and subsequent girdling process. Eventually the host tree dies of strangulation and shading, and the strangler fig stands in its place. In many cases the host tree may actually succumb from shading and root competition rather than strangulation.

With 876 fig species worldwide, many with multiple symbiotic wasps (pollinators & nonpollinators), this is truly a remarkable and extraordinarily complex relationship between minute insects and their host trees. In fact, the printed DNA cladograms for figs and their wasps are unbelievably complex and absolutely mind-boggling! It is now known that fig wasps do not always pollinate a single species of host tree. In fact, they may enter the syconia of other fig species, a phenomenon known as "pollinator sharing." At Palomar College the pollinator wasp listed for our rustyleaf fig (Ficus rubiginosa) is Pleistodontes imperialis; however, it also enters the syconia of at leat 4 other fig species on campus. Although the native pollinator listed for F. watkinsiana in Australia is P. nigriventris, I have reason to believe that at the San Diego Zoo this spectacular tree may be pollinated by P. imperialis. It has been suggested by fig biologists that "pollinator sharing" and hybridization may be important factors contributing to so many fig species!