A strangler fig is a common plant of many tropical forests. It has a very interesting growth habit. It begins its life as a seed, mostly in the canopy, deposited there by some bird. The seed germinates shooting down to the ground a long root. Once it establishes connection with the ground, it gets its nutrients from the soil. Then the tree starts the next phase and shoots more roots around its host clenching to the trunk. It develops branches taking over the space of its host that slowly languishes the years after. Once it is dead and gone it leaves empty hollow inside the strangler.