What Clusia can do

I think that Clusia is an attractive tree and I like its leathery leaves and interesting flower and fruit.

But it has what we humans might call a nasty habit: it can strangle other trees, just like the famous strangler figs, of which the banyan is an example.

This one, found on our neighbor’s property as we were walking with them today, has strangled both a tree and a rock, though the rock probably didn’t care.

I’ Another feature of the tree I like is its bark.

But when our gardener saw a Clusia growing adjacent to one of our nance fruit trees, he cut it down.

Now I know why.