How Fig Trees Tell the Story of Our World — One Year On

One year ago today, I hit ‘publish’ on the first edition of Planet Ficus. When I launched the newsletter, I set out to amaze, inform and inspire readers with stories about what — to my mind — is the most extraordinary group of plants on Earth. Fig trees (Ficus species) are ecological and cultural keystones that have shaped our planet and our species in remarkable ways.

Twelve months on, I think that mission is on track.

Along the way, I’ve taken readers to rainforest canopies and city streets, explored ancient scriptures and modern science, and followed threads that connect ecology and culture around the world.

As the newsletter has grown, I’m aware that many subscribers will have missed earlier editions. So below is a selection of stories you may not have seen.

If you’ve been reading for a while, thank you — your continued interest drives me to keep writing. If you are new here, welcome. I think you’ll find something that changes how you see fig trees, and perhaps the world around you.

The Planet Ficus archive now holds a growing collection of these stories. Together, they show how understanding one remarkable group of trees can illuminate so much about life on Earth. If you’re not sure where to begin, start here: The story of fig trees is the story of us

In the coming year, I want Planet Ficus to go deeper into the science, exploring more cultures and landscapes, and connecting these stories more closely to the big issues of sustainability and resilience that matter so much today.

If that is a mission you can get behind, please like, share and subscribe.

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New scientific discoveries

• The stone-making fig trees that lock carbon away forever

• Seventeen mammals, one strangler fig — A hidden network discovered

• Mysterious little beings really do live in Hawaiian fig trees

Spirits and the sacred

• Tales from Papua New Guinea explaining how strangler figs became respected and remembered

• The majesty and mystery of India’s sacred banyan trees

• How respect for forest spirits protects Borneo’s strangler figs — and its biodiversity

• The famed wishing fig trees of Hong Kong

• Why strangler figs are associated with ghosts and goblins

Conservation and action

• How fig trees could revolutionize reforestation

• The fight for fig trees on India’s death-trap lane

• India’s sacred fig trees are crucial for biodiversity conservation

The fig-wasp partnership that helps make the world tick

• True or false? Figs contain dead wasps

• How heat could silence the forest’s heartbeat

• How fig wasp genetics rewrote the story of a lost world

Lives shaped by fig trees

• How India’s pre-eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil followed fig trees from sacred groves to a radical vision for governing forests.

• How strangler figs drew one man into the rainforest canopy and changed his life forever

• How India’s ‘mother of trees’ planted thousands of banyan figs, loving them as if they were her children

Life-saving fig trees

• The living fig tree bridges that provide lifelines in extreme weather

• The stranglers that save lives when cyclones strike

History, culture and change

• What happened when Christian missionaries met Kenya’s sacred fig trees

• The royal roots and modern uses of cloth made from Ugandan fig trees

• The trees of life that became agents of death

An explosion of art

• How an ancient fig tree inspired hundreds of interconnected artworks

Thanks for reading. I hope you find something here that grabs your attention. Subscribe below to receive my future dispatches from Planet Ficus.

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