Ficus aurea is a tree in the family Moraceae that is native to Florida,
the northern and western Caribbean, southern Mexico and Central America
south to Panama. The specific epithet aurea was coined by English
botanist Thomas Nuttall who described the species in 1846; older names
applied to this species have been ruled invalid. Ficus aurea is a
strangler fig; seed germination usually takes place in the canopy of a
host tree and the seedling lives as an epiphyte until its roots
establish contact with the ground. It then enlarges and strangles its
host, eventually becoming a freestanding tree in its own right.
Individuals may reach 30 m (100 ft) in height. Like all figs, it has an
obligate mutualism with fig wasps; figs are only pollinated by fig
wasps, and fig wasps can only reproduce in fig flowers. The tree
provides habitat, food and shelter for a host of tropical lifeforms
including epiphytes in cloud forests and birds, mammals, reptiles and
invertebrates. F. aurea is used in traditional medicine, for live
fencing, as an ornamental and as a bonsai.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_aurea>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
French playwright, journalist and outspoken feminist Olympe de Gouges
was guillotined for her revolutionary ideas.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_Gouges>
1838:
The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language
daily broadsheet newspaper, was founded as the The Bombay Times and
Journal of Commerce.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_India>
1942:
World War II: The Allies defeated the Axis at the Second Battle of El
Alamein, Egypt, turning the tide in the North African Campaign by
ending Axis hopes of taking control of the Suez Canal and thus gaining
access east to the Middle Eastern oil fields.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein>
1957:
The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, carrying Laika the
Russian space dog as the first living creature from Earth to enter
orbit.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika>
1996:
Abdullah Çatlı, a drug trafficker, a contract killer, and a leader of
the ultra-nationalist Nationalist Movement Party, was killed in a car
crash near Susurluk, Balıkesir Province, Turkey, sparking the Susurluk
scandal which exposed the depth of the state's complicity in organized
crime.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_%C3%87atl%C4%B1>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
ewer (n):
A kind of widemouthed pitcher or jug with a shape like a vase and a
handle
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ewer>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Athirst for personal salvation, the West forgets that many religions
had but a vague notion of the life beyond the grave; true, all great
religions stake a claim on eternity, but not necessarily on man's
eternal life.
--André Malraux
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Malraux>
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