Lianas grow in the djungle, right? Everyone knows that.
But there are also lianas in the temperate climate of Europe, and in some regions they are very common.
These are the fruits (nuts) of Clematis vitalba, in English known also as old man's beard, in German Gemeine Waldrebe (and loads of other names in regional dialects):
They grow almost everywhere near the Danube around Vienna and climb the trees up to ten metres and more, but they too climb up smaller bushes which they could cover almost totally with their leaves. Sometimes they grow even solitary.
However, in the region where I grew up, meaning Mühlviertel, Upper Austria, I didn't ever see a single Clematis vitalba; I only came to know them when I moved to Vienna. The plant itself (which is poisonous, by the way) is not very pretty, but the nuts are, don't you think?
