lianas: lovely interloping, ascending, networked amazing structures!

lianas. they corkscrew, loop, climb straight up, laze by the roots, crisscross, yank massive trees down, host moss, play bridge to primates and other arboreals, snake across paths and... trip you up... yup, they live life fully!

for me, they are as much of an essence of a rainforest as the moss, the fungi and the lofty shorea. in a crazy, dreamy moment, they almost reminded me of protein structures -- impossibly 3-dimensional with far reaching effects in unnamed ways. and i love to capture them, freeze their frenetic shapes and marvel at their tenacity.

Lianas snake up in a secondary forest in the Bolivian Amazon

Dipping in to the muddy Kinabatangan tributary in Borneo, a pretty spiral liana

A typical maze of crisscrossing lianas -- few things are prettier than an intertwined bunch  eagerly covered by moss, Danum Valley, Borneo

A corkscrew liana, Danum Valley, Borneo  | And below, a pretty spiral in the Peruvian Amazon

For a lovely little piece on the importance of being Liana, see here.