Curtain Fig Tree
| Curtain Fig Tree | |
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Curtin Fig Tree
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| Location | Curtain Fig Tree Road, Yungaburra, Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 17°17′10″S 145°34′26″E / 17.286°S 145.574°ECoordinates: 17°17′10″S 145°34′26″E / 17.286°S 145.574°E |
| Official name: The Curtain Fig Tree | |
| Type | state heritage (landscape) |
| Designated | 3 December 2009 |
| Reference no. | 602734 |
| Significant period | 1920s |
 Location of Curtain Fig Tree in Queensland
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Curtain Fig Tree is a heritage-listed tree at Curtain Fig Tree Road, Yungaburra, Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the largest trees in Tropical North Queensland, Australia, and one of the best known attractions on the Atherton Tableland. It is located just out of Yungaburra. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 December 2009.
The Curtain Fig Tree is of the strangler fig species Ficus virens. Normally these figs germinate on top of another tree and try to grow roots into the ground. Once this important step is accomplished, the fig will grow vigorously, finally kill the hosting tree and then grow on independently. In this case, the hosting tree tilted towards the next one; the fig also grows around that one. Its curtain of aerial roots drops 15 metres (49 feet) to the ground.
Although these figs kill their hosts, they are an epiphyte which basically feeds from the ground, unlike a parasitic plant which feeds from the sap of the host plant/tree.
Far North Queensland's famous Curtain Fig Tree (Ficus virens) is located in a national park about one kilometre north of the town of Yungaburra on the Atherton Tableland. It is estimated by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to be at least 500 years old. Associated with organised tourism on the Tableland since the 1920s, the tree has been important in the development of the Cairns hinterland as a major tourist region in Queensland.
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