Thread: Common Thai plants & trees

Another question for the experts from TD. Here is a shot of a tree in my backyard. BTW, I risked life and limb for this photo as it was taken on top of my home. I think the name for this tree is the Japanese Yew.


Now for the question. What is this little bugger that will attach itself and then grow? The Thais say it is like a parasite and will kill the main tree. I follow local custom and simply snip off the bad guy.

Sir Burr, I am just guessing...

The bad guy...

ต้นกาฝาก

This is what the wife says in Thai...

Where does this bad guy come from?

Hillbilly,

Sorry, don't read Thai.
Birds eat the figs. The plant is pretty cunning because the bird cannot shit the seed out while it is in flight because it is covered in a sticky goo that is not digested. The bird shits on a branch and then has to "wipe" the seed off onto the branch to detach the seed from it's arse. The seed then grows two small leaves with the ready made fertilizer of the bird shit and then it puts down a single aerial root. Once this root hits the ground, growth accelerates.
The strangler fig then wraps the host tree in its embrace. eventually the host tree dies because it cannot grow. It rots away, feeding the strangler fig and the fig stands alone as a tube.

This is the picture I used to identify the "baddy".




A Strangler Fig in attack mode.


The victim has been killed and digested, leaving a hollow tube.

ต้นกาฝาก, or gaa faak is a hemiparasitic vine of the species Loranthaceae, having Mistletoe as the common English name. There are sixty or so subspecies, and while europaeus is very widespread, even within the US, I don't know which would be common to your area.

It is interesting to me that gaa faak shares its name with the bird, nok gaa faak. As I understand it, the bird is similar to the cowbird that lays its eggs in another species nest to be hatched and raised. I can see how a parasitic type plant could be looked upon in the same way.

Loranthaceae europaeus