This giant Ficus kerkhovenii situated next to an old logging road at Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Sabah was fruiting in late May 2024.
Around a third of the leafy crown blew off in a storm leaving the original strangler trunk with kneed buttresses still standing along with a much younger large drop down root.
These twin supports were able to keep the fig tree standing and alive despite the storm.
What appears to have happened is that a seed from the parent tree landed in the base of the crown of the adult parent (dark trunk) and developed its own large drop down root (pale round trunk root) . When the young fig attempted to kill the parent with a strangling collar the attempt failed and the young fruiting fig was blown to the ground in a storm.
Ficus kerkhovenii is one of only a few stranglers in Borneo (including Ficus stupenda, Ficus crassiramea and Ficus sumatrana which can produce enough large drop down aerial roots to support itself when the host tree eventually collapses. It appears that the primary method by which support is achieved is that the drop down roots branch when they reach the ground and then push the whole trunk upwards creating multiple knees or supports at the base of the fig’s original trunk.
Thanks to Mellinda Jenuit, Dr Zainal, Ronald and the team at SFGC for information and photos
