Friends, This is a very interesting observation.....the palm trees being 'alive and strong'. Normally the supporting host would indeed die. The explanation to my understanding is that if the host is a dicot, then it dies because the trunk cannot develop because the cambium is all on the outer rim of the trunk just below the bark while in monocots to which the palm belongs, the cambium is in bundles inside the body of the trunk. However, in the end, the palm would die when the strangler fig becomes fully established and cuts out all air flow to the palm trunk.
Lavkumar Khachar. On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 11:29 PM, raghu ananth <[email protected]> wrote: > At Kattupalli beach, near chennai, tall palm trees (Palmyra palm, Borassus > flabellifer), casuarina & cashew nut are found growing in abundance and are > the only greenery on this rather stark landscape. The sand dunes are spread > all over like a smooth, white undulating carpet. > > We could see a number palm trees strangled (atleast 50) by fig trees. In > fact, all of the supporting palm trees were still alive & strong ! > > > Kattupalli village / beach, > Near Chennai > Aug 15, 2009 > > Regards > Raghu > > > > > > ------------------------------ > Connect more, do more and share more with Yahoo! India Mail. Learn > more<http://in.rd.yahoo.com/tagline_galaxy_3/*http://in.overview.mail.yahoo.com/> > . > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "indiantreepix" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
