It's a long way to the top if you have to climb a bole; vines and the rainforest

[Extract] We have all seen Tarzan swinging through the trees gracefully shifting from vine to vine whilst travelling to his next adventure, but have you ever stopped to wonder what he was actually hanging from? If not, you're not alone. In fact, as late as the mid 1970s, worldwide knowledge of the ecology of woody vines (lianas) was described by one researcher as a "virtual blank". This is despite a strong interest in vines by many early luminaries, including the great Charles Darwin himself who in 1867 wrote an article for the erudite Linnaean Society entitled "On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants". Unfortunately, after Darwin's era, the exclusive study of vines to any great extent abated for over a hundred years. However, by the early 1980s a renaissance of interest into vines had begun and this continues to grow into the present day as we attempt to glean a clearer understanding of how these "ropes of the jungle" operate