0015

 In Africa there lives an extraordinary tree.  She is the queen of the

river bank, a monarch whose story stretches back millions of years.

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In tribal cultures, her curious ways have fueled myth and legend.

They set her apart from other trees.

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She is a sycomore fig - queen of Africa's trees.

                                                            TITLE

                        THE QUEEN OF TREES

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She appears never to flower, yet mysteriously she fruits several

times a year.

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She seems to have no regard for season and drops her leaves when

she pleases. 

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Strangest of all is the relationship, upon which she completely

depends.

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The two partners couldn"t be more different.  One can withstand a

river in flood, the other can drown in a dew drop.

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One lives for centuries, the other only hours.

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They differ in size a billion times over.  At about a millimeter long,

the fig wasp is so small that it could fly through the eye of a needle

- but no fig tree could exist without it.

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Sycomore figs are found throughout tropical Africa.

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In southern Kenya they thrive along river banks.

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This is the story of one of those trees.

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Our African queen, is a mature sycomore fig. She started life as a

seed, a hundred years ago.

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She provides for many animals.

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To some, she is a hunting ground; to others, she is home.

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She feeds a greater variety than any tree in Africa.

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All rely on her tiny fig wasp partner, that only a few even notice.

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Every few months, the queen produces up to a ton of fruit.  To

reproduce, she must transfer pollen to make seeds, and then

disperse them inside figs.

The last crop fell only days ago…but up above, she is starting again.

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Over the next two weeks, the tiny buds swell to become young figs.

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Hidden inside each, are the queen's tiny flowers. At this stage a fig is

not a fruit, but a secret garden whose delicate perfume attracts a

flock of fig wasps.

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Their arrival will trigger a sequence of events that will resonate out

through the bush.

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The wasps are all females, laden with pollen and eggs. They must

enter the fig via the garden gate, to pollinate the flowers and lay

their eggs inside.

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A one-way passage leads to the secret garden, which is lined with

hundreds of microscopic white flowers.

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Some of these flowers will become seeds, others will be a nursery for

fig wasps. The tree will surround each wasp egg with a capsule,

called a gall, which will nourish and protect it.

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The wasps will soon die, but inside each hanging garden their

offspring will live on. The queen is now their surrogate mother, and

will care for them, until they hatch in two months time.

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The fig wasps aren"t the only ones to lay eggs in the tree, for a pair

of grey hornbills is nesting.

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This female’s confinement will be temporary.

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She seals herself into the hollow trunk, leaving only a slit, through

which her mate can feed her.

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The swelling figs place a big demand on the queen. To feed her

wasps and grow seeds, she needs to make sugar with her leaves.

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Animals that eat leaves are a major threat.

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 If the queen looses too many, she might have to abort her figs.

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The only thing more damaging, is a direct attack on the nursery.

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To protect her leaves and young figs, the queen pumps them up

with a milky latex, that is foul-tasting and sticky.

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Small offenders get stuck down, and its’ unpleasant enough to

ensure that others don’t stay too long to feed.

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Sycomore figs have been under attack for millions of years. In that

time, some insects have evolved strategies to overcome the defenses.

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A fig longhorn beetle bites through the veins, to disrupt the flow of

latex.

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It starts with the main vein and works outwards.

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Downstream of the damage, the flow is cut off - and the beetle can

feed.

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The fig Katydid cuts the flow of latex, by cutting off the leaf.

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The pink mantis is a predator, but its still very young and a katydid

this size, is more monster than meal.

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The mantis can’t fly, so to get off the leaf it has to get past the green

giant.

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Beneath the tree, the fermenting juice in the last crop of figs attracts

vinegar flies – an ideal size, if the mantis still wants to snatch a bite

to eat.

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The male hornbill is working hard, for he now has three extra

mouths to feed.

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For hornbills, nesting is always a risk. To try and plan her family for

when most food is available, the female had to lay before the rains.

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This year they’re late, and every day that they delay, will make

finding food a little harder and the chicks a little weaker.

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To try and protect the wasp nursery from parasites, after the

females entered, the queen closed the gate and flooded the garden

with an antiseptic liquid.

It doesn’t work against nematode worms, which used a female wasp

as a Trojan horse, and stowed away in her body to get into the fig.

Inside they burst out and are now breeding, to be ready to infect the

next generation of fig wasps.

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Outside, the nursery is under attack from parasitic wasps. They

can’t get in by the gate, so they drill through with a long ovipositor - 

an egg-laying device that works like a hypodermic.

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 Forced deep inside, it will deposit an egg on a developing fig wasp.

The grub that hatches, will kill the wasp and take over its gall.

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The driller seems to have evolved the perfect strategy – but, over

time, even parasites can be exploited.

A smaller, banded wasp has an ovipositor just as long, but more

flexible.

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The little wasps fight for access, and when the driller pulls out, the

winner goes straight for its’ hole

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It will use the same shaft to lay its egg on the drillers’ – for these

smaller wasps are parasites of parasites.

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In the queen’s battle to protect her fig wasps, her allies are ants.

They will kill any parasites they capture.

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Anything they can’t subdue, they bite and sting to drive away.

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The ants appear to be protecting the figs, and in a sense they are,

for all are attacked.

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…all that is, except one.

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These tiny bug eggs should be the ideal snack for an ant - but

instead, the ants look after them.

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As they hatch, the ants gather up the babies.

They are nymphs of a bug called Hilda, which are herded out to

graze, as if they were sheep.

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Almost every fig now becomes a paddock.

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The ants are so attentive, because a nymph has hollow piercing

mouthparts that enable it to tap into the fig’s sap.

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The sweet liquid is under pressure, so it passes rapidly through the

nymph.

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When it comes out, it still contains plenty of sugar - so in return for

being nursemaids and bodyguards, the ants receive a supply of

sweet honeydew.

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The wounds made by the nymphs and parasites, are healed with

latex that dries to form a natural rubber.

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The bee doesn’t eat it, but collects it to take back to seal holes in its

own nest.

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It’s been two weeks since the hornbill chicks hatched and still, it

hasn’t rained.

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Now, the female must break out to help feed her family.

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As soon as she leaves, the eldest chick instinctively starts to plaster

up the hole again, using droppings and debris from the nest. It will

be a while before it is ready to leave.

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The rains arouse some that have been sleeping for months.

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They will bring the expected flush of insects – but they have come

too late for the youngest chick.

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When their mother left, the largest chick dominated the food

supply.

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The chicks differed in size, because the eggs were laid a few days

apart, and hatched at different times.

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There is a distinct pecking order, so in lean times, the chick with the

best chance of survival gets to feed first, and takes most of the food.

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Even now, with both parents providing, the smallest dare not feed

until the larger is full.

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Despite clear skies, beneath the tree, it still seems to be raining.

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These are fig cicadas.

They emerge after rain and tap straight into the sap.

Like Hilda, they vent what they can’t absorb, but to avoid getting

their wings sticky, they don’t drip but squirt.

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 From the trees’ point of view, this is a major assault.

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In the fight against cicadas, the queen needs all the help she can get,

for the ants have changed their allegiance.

Each time a cicada pulls out, it leaves a drop of sweet sap, which

bribes the security.  The ants are too busy drinking, to protect the

tree.

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The sap is the only thing the ants will defend, but if news of it gets

back to the hive, then the bees will be back in force.

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At the peak of the invasion, the trunk runs with sap - and branches

and leaves are sticky with the sweet drizzle.

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Monkeys are opportunists. Cicadas are only around for a few

days each year, so they get their fix of sugar while they can.

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To begin with, there is no competition - but it didn’t take long for

the news to spread.

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Fortunately for the queen, the cicadas disappear as quickly as they

came.

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For the past two months she has been making sugar to grow seeds

and wasps. Inside the figs, the protective fluid has drained away.

The exposed galls are no bigger than pin heads. The female wasps

inside cannot hatch yet – they must wait for a mate.

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Male fig wasps have powerful jaws and a single intention.

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On hatching, they cut through to the captive females – not to let

them out, but to let themselves in.

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A male has no wings, and only tiny antennae and eyes – but in one

area, he is very well-endowed.

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His cleft chin, helps guide him in.

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He impregnates a female before she hatches – with an organ that is

so long and flexible that some males can mate without even leaving

their galls.

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Inside the trunk, there has been a dramatic change in behaviour – as

if adolescence had set in overnight. At dawn, the eldest chick started

breaking down the door. It’s time for it to leave.

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In the confined space, the chick hasn’t even been able to stretch its’

wings – so if it’s to fly, it will need instinct to kick in before it hits

the ground.

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It is an adolescent triumph of instinct over experience - but it will be

a few days yet before the last chick attempts it.

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The queen can produce up to a hundred thousand figs. Inside each,

the female fig wasps have enlarged the holes the males made, and

are now starting to emerge.

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They look very different to their mates as they have large eyes,

antennae, and wings… all will be essential for their mission.

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The parasites hatch too, for they’ll rely on the fig wasps to help

them escape from the fig.

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The nematode worms are trying to snag a female wasp.

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They’ll burrow into her body and slowly eat her alive – but they

can’t kill her too quickly as she is the only way they can reach

another fig.

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The male wasps’ next job is to cut flowers.

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The white anthers contain pollen and must be chopped down for

the females.

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Their mission is to carry the queen’s pollen to other trees. It is why

she raised them – pollination of a queen, is exclusively by

appointment.

The fig wasp female scrapes out pollen and carefully packs it in

special pockets on her breast. It is extraordinary behavior, which

has evolved out of millions of years of mutual dependence between

wasp and tree.

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The males, meanwhile, have started to tunnel. It will take them some

hours, but before they die, they must release the females from the

fig.

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These bees are scouts, sent ahead of a swarm to search for a nest

site … but it is already occupied.

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The baby hornbill is in danger - if a single scout gets back, then the

swarm will descend on the tree.

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It can’t let any get away.

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In thousands of figs all over the tree, the tiny tunnelers are about to

break out. In the space of one hour in the late afternoon, millions of

fig wasps will emerge.

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This is the final act of the males’ brief lives.

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 For them, a glimpse of evening sunshine won’t signal freedom, but

death – after two months developing inside the fig, their lives have

been whittled down to an intense few hours.

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Now, they give their lives, to set the females free.

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The winged couriers will never feed. They can’t survive more than a

few hours in the sun, and the worms inside are already weakening

them – theirs’ will be a race against time.

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They don’t hang about for good reason.

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The ants don’t distinguish between parasite and pollinator - but it’s

the price the queen pays for security.  The ants kept many parasites

from laying, so ultimately more fig wasps survived.

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The activity attracts other players.

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In its bid to reach the wasps, a tiny day gecko doesn’t notice a giant

stick insect, which plays an important supporting role.

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Fig wasps can’t sting, and they are so nourishing, that in order to

catch them, the gecko risks going out on a limb.

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It relies on quick reactions and good eyesight.

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Sometimes that is not enough.

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As a last resort, to distract a predator, a gecko can jettison its’ tail.

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It’s a remarkable ploy, and if the gecko can stay out of trouble, then

its tail will grow back.

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All over the tree, the queen’s tiny couriers are being intercepted.

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A spider cannot eat them all at once so it wraps them in silk,

trapped as a living larder.

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For each wasp that is captured, hundreds will fly free. It will be the

flight of their lives – this evening the tiny wasps will set out – in

search of a fig tree and another secret garden.

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Some will find trees nearby, but others will be picked up by the

wind and can travel over a hundred kilometers.  

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In the aftermath of the breakout, the queen is littered with

casualties. Many didn’t make it, or gave their lives so that others

did.

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One scout got away, and although the parents tried, they couldn’t

entice the chick from the nest…. it simply wasn’t ready.

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The queen’s leaves have done their job. For the last two months

they’ve been making sugar, but the wasps have flown and her seeds

are ready to be dispersed.

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When the wasps left, the figs ripened rapidly to become soft and

orange and full of sugar – it’s as if each is shouting 'eat me!’

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Over a hundred different kinds of birds eat figs. All will fly off with

a cargo of fig seeds.

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Some eat little else.

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A green pigeon is a fig specialist that flies miles from its nest in

order to feed.

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The birds have waited for the banquet – and they won’t be

frightened off.

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Back at its nest, the green pigeon feeds its chicks on a milk of liquid

figs.

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In this way the bounty of the tree is spread far and wide.

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Some can smell the fruit from miles away.

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Others live close by and, while the queen is fruiting, visit every day.

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There is so much on offer, that the monkeys can be choosy. They

discard figs that are full of parasites.

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With tiger beetles below, the wasps will be lucky to get airborne.

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Some figs remain full of parasites.

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Inside them, all are dying - for parasites need pollinator males to

release them.

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If the parasites have been too successful - they can hatch, but never

leave.

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In this way the parasite numbers are kept in check.

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Across Africa, more animals eat figs than any other fruit.

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Fig trees are so important because they fruit outside the normal

fruiting season.

If they produced figs only once a year, the short-lived fig wasps

would die out. To maintain the population of pollinators, each tree

needs to fruit at random several times a year – and this benefits

everyone.

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In the heat, fig juice ferments into alcohol – and the smell attracts a

thirsty clientele.

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The butterflies are normally shy and elusive – but drinking alcohol

through a straw, has a predictable effect.

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The inebriated insects are lucky, as they don’t taste very good and

most can still manage to fly.

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The queen’s generosity extends beyond the tree – for those she

provides for, in turn, support others.

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Wherever fish gather - a crocodile is never far behind.

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The croc sets its’ trap in fast water where the fish can’t see its jaws.

It won’t see the fish – but it will react to the slightest touch.

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As figs are the bait, the croc makes a lot of false strikes  - but, as in

any fishing, … patience is essential.

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Figs are sometimes eaten by people, but occasionally the tree has

something sweeter to offer.

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Traditionally, fig wood is used to conjure fire for it is soft and

smolders well.

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The wood in which the bees found sanctuary, is now being used

against them.

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Dry elephant dung is the tinder.

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To gather honey, the Maasai exploit the bees’ instinctive response to

smoke.

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It’s evolved to protect the colony in the event of forest fire.

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When the bees smell smoke, instead of defending the nest, they

gorge on honey, and then flee. In a fire, it would be more important

that they escaped, so they could re-establish the colony elsewhere.

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Normally, even a single sting triggers an attack…but, with the

smoke, there’s no reaction.

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The figs’ flowers had nothing to do with this honey. The queens’

exclusive relationship with her wasps means that her flowers never

saw the sun and never had a visit from a bee.

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Living by water helps spread the seeds, as figs float downstream and

sprout along the strand-line – a tiny echo of the avenue they came

from.

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It can be a one-way ticket - unless the seeds can get help.

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Migrating catfish carry some back up-stream.

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A lucky few will be planted and fertilized.

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Strangely, no seedlings grow beneath the queen – despite the

amount of fruit that falls.

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Nothing germinates here, not because of shade, but because tiny

seed-bugs steal all the seeds.

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They are specialists that eat only fig seeds.

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To perpetuate the royal line, the queen needs help to get her seeds

further afield.

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It doesn’t arrive until after dark.

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Fruit bats are the most important seed dispersers.

They’re less agile than birds – so the queen makes access easier, by

dropping her leaves and hanging her figs clear of the branches.

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Each bat needs to eat half it’s weight in fig pulp each night.

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They eat little else - and a diet of fig juice can result in an urge that

requires immediate action.

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Importantly for seed dispersal, a bat rarely eats in the fig tree, but

carries the fig a short distance away.

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It doesn’t eat everything, but sucks out the juice and discards the

seeds - so beneath its perch, sprout tiny fig gardens.

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During the night, the female fig wasps have been traveling across

Africa.

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A few have found receptive figs, by homing in on the scent from a

secret garden.

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To enter, the female must squeeze through the gate.

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Her wedge-shaped head will help pry it open, but it’s so tight that

her wings and antennae will be ripped from her, and in the final

push, she literally busts a gut.

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She must lay her eggs, before the nematodes she is carrying, burst

out and kill her.

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Her final challenge is to negotiate a spiral valve that leads to the

flowers. It might take an hour and will need all her strength.

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She will be alone in the garden, for the gate is closing – others

arrived too late.

4940

Inside, she is in trouble. The nematodes are breaking out.

4951

She cannot last much longer, but must still lay her eggs and

complete her mission.

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The tiny wasp’s final act is to repay her debt to the queen – to

unpack the precious pollen and fertilize the flowers. It is her gift –

and the culmination of millions of years of co-evolution between

wasp and tree.

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In perpetuating the relationship, she makes the ultimate sacrifice.

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The queen’s figs have provided for animals from ants to elephants. 

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In travelling, they will disperse her seeds.

5102

Those seeds will germinate, and somewhere in Africa, where a bat

perched or an elephant came to drink – there will grow a fig tree.

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In a few years, it will sprout its first fig, and the scent from that

secret garden will touch a tiny wasp, which will turn upwind, in

search of the source. Once again, the two will come together, and

continue the extraordinary relationship, that has provided for so

many over millions of years.