The complexity and intricacy of rattan

Rattan, Berchemia scandens, is a common presence in the woods on Austin’s hilly west side. This vine, which is woody in its own right, offers two colors during most of the year, a dull green and a dull brown, both of which are in evidence here. In November or December there’s the addition of yellow as the vine’s deciduous leaves prepare to fall away; you see some of that in the distance near the upper right, where the leaves in the canopy are at their densest. In contrast, the closer rattan leaves in the upper left are still almost completely green. The tree in the foreground on which the vine has climbed is the familiar Ashe juniper, Juniperus ashei.

This photograph comes from the woods behind the Arboretum in northwest Austin during the same November 30th venture that brought you the pictures of flaming flameleaf sumacs in the last two posts.

© 2014 Steven Schwartzman