strangler fig

strangler fig

n.

An evergreen tree (Ficus aurea) of southern Florida and the West Indies, having elliptic leaves and yellow fruit.

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[From the fact that it strangles its host.]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	strangler fig - a strangler tree native to southern Florida and West Indies; begins as an epiphyte eventually developing many thick aerial roots and covering enormous areas Ficus aurea, Florida strangler fig, golden fig, wild fig Ficus, genus Ficus - large genus of tropical trees or shrubs or climbers including fig trees fig tree - any moraceous tree of the tropical genus Ficus; produces a closed pear-shaped receptacle that becomes fleshy and edible when mature
	2.	strangler fig - a common tropical American clusia having solitary white or rose flowers Clusia major, Clusia rosea, pitch apple genus Clusia - tropical American aromatic trees or shrubs; often epiphytic; some stranglers strangler, strangler tree - an epiphytic vine or tree whose aerial roots extend down the trunk of a supporting tree and coalesce around it eventually strangling the tree