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The strangler fig is a common sight in the rainforests.
A bird poops a fig seed at the top of a host tree. It
germinates roots that travel to the forest floor, so many
that it eventually strangles the original host tree after
hundreds of years.
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We saw the grasstree in many areas of Queensland. I
didn't agree with the common story that they bloom once
every 2 years, though, since we only saw a small handful
actually blooming.
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We only saw the scribble bark tree on Fraser Island.
The scribbles were caused by a specific type of insect that
lived in the tree.
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The curtain fig was a special case of the strangler
fig. The massive root system was aided by the host tree's
collapse against a neighbor. This was in the Atherton
Tablelands.
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Mangrove trees are a special family that can filter
the salt out of saltwater. We found many representatives
of a few species in Daintree National Park.
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The basket fern is an epiphyte, a family of plants
that lives in treetops whose roots just go as far as the
limbs they grip. Epiphytes are common in the rainforests.
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