Ficus elastica
A large strangler fig of monsoonal forests from the eastern Himalayan foothills and northeast India through Myanmar and Yunnan to Sumatra and Java. It reaches 20–30 m, starts as an epiphyte on a host tree, and drops aerial roots; the living root bridges of Meghalaya are grown from these roots. It wants much more light than its reputation as a tolerant houseplant suggests, and it expects a cool, dry winter.
Where it grows wild
Evergreen and semi-evergreen tropical and subtropical forest, notably on limestone in the hills of northeast India and Myanmar. It is a facultative hemiepiphyte: bird-dispersed seeds germinate in the canopy of a host tree, the young plant grows epiphytically in bright upper-canopy light, and its aerial roots descend, fuse and may strangle the host. Mature trees are canopy emergents in full sun.
Flora of China gives 800–1500 m in western Yunnan. The ten wild records with elevation span sea level to about 1930 m, median about 150 m, which reflects lowland records in India, Bangladesh and Vietnam, some of which are probably planted.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC0 licence, unmodified.