The Queen of Trees Introduction

• The Queen of Trees ~ Video: Mutual Dependence
• The Queen of Trees ~ Video: Giving Food and Shelter
• The Queen of Trees ~ Photo Essay: An Extraordinary Ecosystem
• The Queen of Trees ~ Fig Trees: From the Sacred to the Strangler
• Video Segments: The Secret World of Sharks and Rays
• Lesson Overview
• The Vanishing Lions ~ Introduction
• Animal Guide: Honeybee
• Silence of the Bees ~ Video: Full Episode
• Silence of the Bees ~ Introduction

NATURE reveals the importance of an unlikely partnership between a regal tree and a tiny wasp in The Queen of Trees.

It may be one of nature’s oddest couples: a tiny wasp that can barely be seen, and a giant fig tree, the sycomore, which shelters a remarkable menagerie of wildlife among its limbs. The wasp and the fig depend on each other for survival. Without the wasp, the tree could not pollinate its flowers and produce seeds. Without the fig, the wasp would have nowhere to lay its eggs.

The Queen of Trees shows this delicate dance of survival in exquisite detail, including spectacular close-ups of the wasp’s remarkable life inside a ripening fig. To capture such incredible images, filmmakers Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble spent two years camped out near a giant sycomore fig in Kenya’s outback, documenting the tree’s pivotal role as a source of food and shelter for everything from gray hornbills, Africa’s largest bird, to swarms of invading insects searching for food. In a surprising turn, some insects come to the tree’s aid — sparking a battle you won’t want to miss.