Curtain Fig Tree and Termite Mounds

Herberton – the Atherton Tablelands Walkabout Cairns

Curtain Fig Tree and Termite Mounds

Curtain Fig Tree

Curtain Fig Tree

The Atherton Tableland had many amazing natural settings; dormant volcanic lakes, rain forests, waterfalls, and a couple exotic oddities.

One of the most unusual oddities was a Curtain Fig Tree which we visited near the village of Yungabarra. The curtain fig is deep in the rainforest down a gravel road that led to a small national park. We walked from the parking lot into the rainforest on a wooden platform.

Rainforest near curtain fig tree

The curtain fig looked like a living waterfall with hundreds of roots streaming down from high in the canopy. It looked supernatural, from another planet or created in a laboratory. But it was a living tree, a strangler fig, fichus virens, which is an epiphyte, a plant that attaches to another species but does not use its sap to live.

Aerial tree roots

Roots penetrate soil in heavy vegetation

A boardwalk around the tree allows you to examine its tangled aerial root system.

Roots of lace curtain tree

Strangler figs lean against a host tree and sends its roots into the soil. This curtain fig is more than 800 years old and 15 meters high. When it’s parent tree died, the curtain fig remained in place and continued to grow. The host tree can be seen, tangled in aerial roots at the top of the canopy. A sign detailed the history and botanical features of the tree.

Park billboard explaining the growth of the curtain fig

Dead host tree trunk high in canopy

Closer view of roots

Termite Mounds

Termite mound

The day we returned to Cairns, we passed many reddish, sandy looking termite mounds visible through the rainforest. I was intrigued by the number, size, color, and unusual shapes of the mounds. I asked Heather to let me out on a side road and walked into the forest to get a few photos.

Interesting color . . . but a bit sinister

Somewhat camouflaged in the rainforest

What do you think, natural formation or something that fell off an alien spaceship? Whatever, you’d never want to camp near one of those things. Something creepy and slimy would like crawl out in the middle of the night and sneak into your tent.