Using the trees as support, vines, climbers and bush ropes grow upward competing for light. Once in the crowns of the trees, the vines branch out creating a maze of vegetation.
Life begins for stranglers in the tree tops. Here, they depend on water and nutrients where there is little soil. They eventually put out long roots into the soil below. The stranglers' leaves shade the crown of the tree it is on, while its roots wrap around the trunk.
