keystone
Every article and hero in Arborpedia that touches this subject.
№ 030TreesBanyan and Strangler Figs: The Trees That Grow Downward and Kill Their Hosts
Figs that begin life in the treetops, send roots down to strangle the tree that hosted them, spread into forests of a single individual, feed half the rainforest — and depend on a wasp that lives one day.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 251EcologyKeystone Species: When Removing One Thing Collapses the Rest
Disproportionate influence relative to abundance — what the concept actually means, where it holds up, and where it gets overstated.
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№ 293WildlifeMistletoe: The Kissing Plant That Feeds the Winter Wood
A plant that grows in the branches of trees, half-feeding off its host — a keystone winter food and habitat for wildlife, spread by birds that wipe its sticky seed onto a twig, and wrapped in ancient midwinter magic.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 499EcologyTrophic Cascades: When the Top Predator Shapes the River
How removing — or restoring — a top predator can ripple all the way down a food web to change the plants, the soil, and even the shape of a river, as the wolves of Yellowstone and the sea otters of the kelp forest famously showed.
Jul 2026Read →