The Queen Of Trees - Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone

 

Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone are an Australian couple known for making documentary films that celebrate biodiversity and the interconnectivity of the natural world. Their films have won more than 100 international awards including 'Green Oscars'. Their documentary, 'The Queen of Trees' was released and aired as part of the nature series on Public Broadcasting Services (PBS). It is about one of the nature's oddest Couples. One is a tiny fig wasp that can barely be seen and the other is the queen of Africa's trees, Sycamore fig.  

Actually both the Sycamore fig tree and the fig wasp depend on each other for survival. Without the fig wasps, the tree's flowers that are hidden inside its young figs can't be pollinated to get its seeds. The female wasps laden with pollen and eggs need to lay their eggs inside the figs. Without the fig, the wasp won't have any other suitable place to lay its eggs. Thus the film focuses on the symbiotic relationship between the Sycamore and fig wasp.  Its stunning cinematography and technical brilliance excellently projects the microscopic interactions and visuals.  We can see the fig wasp that can fly through an eye of the needle and its entering through the garden gate of the young figs of the Sycamore fig tree and  laying eggs. It's an amazing experience.

The film also highlights the interdependence between trees, insects, birds and mammals. To some of them the Sycamore fig is a hunting ground and to some others it is home.   As it fruits several times a year, it feeds a greater variety all times than any other tree in Africa.  Thus this film illustrates, not only the mutualistic relationship between the Sycamore fig tree and the wasps, but the web of life and the complexity of ecological interdependence also.

-------Thulasidharan V