strangler fig

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Any of several fig trees that grow at first as epiphytes on another tree and then send roots down to the ground around the trunk of the host tree, especially Ficus aurea, of southern Florida and the West Indies.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a common tropical American clusia having solitary white or rose flowers
• noun a strangler tree native to southern Florida and West Indies; begins as an epiphyte eventually developing many thick aerial roots and covering enormous areas