The picture shows a fairly substantial hackberry tree trunk. But a look at the leaves sprouting from the stem show that this is not part of the tree, but an invasive seedling of the Banyan fig Ficus microcarpa -the one with all the gnarled hanging roots.

So far this is a baby seedling. Will it go on to strangle the whole tree in the years to come?

I can't see any pictures.

Maybe it could happen. This strangler fig has made a mess of what used to be a large mango tree. You can see it in Hong Kong Park near the Teaware Museum.

Maybe you can take another photo of your little seedling at this time next year and see how much progress it has made.

OK, check back here on January 11th 2006 for a progress report.

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Oops, I forgot to set my alarm clock - it's already nearly the end of February. Maybe we should get somebody reliable like Samson on the job.

Not a great deal of change to show for 12 months of rain and sunshine, and I have to admit I help it along a bit during lean periods with a sip of water or the occasional dog turd. Maybe it's waiting for the land dispute to be settled before making a growth spurt.

It's not that I forgot to set my alarm clock for January 11th again, actually walked by on that date and saw that the small strangler fig had disappeared - there were only cut off stems in the wake of an over-zealous cleaning brigade who had slashed everything in sight.

So I was surprised to find recently that the fig had not died, but new growth has emerged at the end of Feb. So it looks like a continual game fo snakes and ladders before this one can really do any damage to the host tree.