Strange Tree. What is it?

December 28, 2008 10:53 AM

I was at the Bogor Daily Photo blog earlier today and saw a picture of a 'Strange Tree' that one of the site's contributors, Alaya, posted with the words " found the tree with strange fruit on the road near botanical garden. anyone know what kind of tree is it? ". I waited the whole day but no answer was forthcoming . I thought it looks like a fruit-bearing parasitic plant that i might have seen somewhere before.The photo piqued my curiosity so I thought I will ask the Mefites. I am sure Alaya will be ever so thankful too. :)
posted by kryptos to science & nature (8 comments total)

Looks like a macadamia nut tree.
posted by b33j at 11:44 AM on December 28, 2008

There was a massive banyan of some sort growing in the courtyard of my jr. high school (in Coral Gables, FL) that grew fruit all over its trunk & limbs that looked a lot like the mystery tree. Needless to say , we used said fruit as missiles to daily terrorize & torment each other.
posted by squalor at 11:54 AM on December 28, 2008

This looks very much like a tree I saw on a nature documentary once. If I'm right, those green "fruits" actually contain the flowers. They're pollinated by a specific species of wasp, that both pollinates the flowers, and lays it's eggs in the seed capsule part of the flower. I'll try to find out the name and post back.
posted by Solomon at 12:18 PM on December 28, 2008

Is this it?
posted by Solomon at 1:29 PM on December 28, 2008

When I had my house, there was a tree in my back yard that looked a lot like that. It was a mulberry tree.
posted by wafaa at 3:03 PM on December 28, 2008

It doesn't look like the kind of mulberry trees that I grew up with in the Midwest, but I'm sure there's lots of different types.

As for the Bogor Botanical Gardens, wow.

"The ultimate in botanical gardens, however, had to be the Bogor Botanical Gardens located 60 km south of the capital of Jakarta in Bogor. Covering more than 80 hectares, it adjoins the Istana Bogor or Presidential Palace.

The Gardens are also a major centre for botanical research. The garden contains more than 15,000 species of trees and plants, 400 types of palms as well as orchid houses that contain some 3000 varieties."

Perhaps someone could be contacted there?
posted by HopperFan at 4:30 PM on December 28, 2008

I think Solomon is absolutely correct, it must be a fig tree, but which kind? I think the obcordate leaves in the lower right might be from a different tree - which makes it tricky to identify, since there are over 850 types of ficus. It kind of looks like the Udumbara tree (Ficus racemosa), " ...middle-sized or large tree with smooth, reddish-brown bark...Fruits on the trunk and larger branches in bunches" - but I honestly can't tell - wish there was a better pic of the leaves!
posted by HopperFan at 5:17 PM on December 28, 2008

Looks like Solomon has got it.
Hopperfan concurred.
Thank you, guys. I have posted another comment on Alaya's blog with a link to this page.

By the way, the Bogor City Blog is part of the community of City Daily Photo.
posted by kryptos at 5:57 PM on December 28, 2008