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Upside-Down Fig Tree

• HelloNurse 4y ago
  Could it simply have leaves on downward-growing repurposed roots?
  • jelliclesfarm 4y ago
    Roots can’t have leaves. Leaves are designed for photosynthesis and reach towards the sun. Roots are designed to use gravity to go down..there is a plant hormone auxin and it is the main control unit. It controls everything about root growth as well as above ground structure. Another hormone called cytokine kicks in to ‘prune’ the side/lateral root growth above ground. Auxin breaks down with sun exposure limiting root growth. This ability to react to sunlight is called photo tropism ..we have manipulated and hacked this in hydroponic and aquaphonic systems. But a tree that bear fruit and year after year…that’s quite something else entirely!
    • HelloNurse 4y ago
      From the photos, leaves seem normal: fully grown, oriented towards the sun, no more random as regular fig leaves. What's strange is that they are attached to downward-growing structures, and reversed trunks are more strange than leaves growing on roots (or something similar to roots). Related fig species like banyans have downwards-growing wooden prop roots after all.