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Comment by cbanek | Hacker News Reader

I wish they had a picture of this fig tree they mention.

This is the best image I could find (from another article). It's not the same fig but you can see a pretty substantial fig growth in this image.

https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI...

https://www.upworthy.com/a-juice-company-dumped-orange-peels...

> a fig tree so huge it would take three people wrapping their arms around the trunk to cover the circumference.

No way that grew in 16 years…

Fig trees are incredibly fast growing. They can grow 15 feet in a single year

Fig trees are insane, you can literally put a branch on the ground and it will grow

Keep in mind that banyan trees (those massive trees that can basically be a small forest in of themselves) are figs as well. Figs grow incredibly fast and often go from a bunch of vines all fighting to climb for sunlight into a giant fused mass that is a fig tree.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banyan_trees_in_Indi...

>Keep in mind that banyan trees (those massive trees that can basically be a small forest in of themselves) are figs as well.

Do they produce fruit or are they just related to the fruiting ones?

They are figs so they do produce the same kind of syconiums as figs but it's not really intended to be consumed by humans because it is small, tastes bitter, and can be a mild laxative. Plenty of other animals consume it tho and it's used a lot for feeding livestock.

The rainforest adapts -very- quickly to regrowth and second growth making way for the much older and much slower growing trees. I fear you underestimate the power of earths biology, especially in the rainforest areas.

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