Look closely at the biggest trees in town and some of them are not one tree. A latticework of grey roots wraps a trunk, or wraps nothing at all, a hollow tube of fig standing where something else once grew.
Where you’ll see it
Dry forest and gardens across the coast, and as huge shade trees in town. Any old tree with a tangle of roots around it is on its way to becoming one.
What to know
A bird drops a fig seed in the fork of a tree. The seedling grows down, roots reach the ground, and over decades the fig surrounds and outcompetes its host. Figs fruit almost continuously and feed more birds and animals than any other tree here: monkeys, toucans, bats, parrots, everything. A fig in fruit is the best wildlife watching on the coast. Plant one far from the house.
