A liana is a long-stemmed, herbaceous or woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in search of direct sunlight. The word liana does not refer to a taxonomic grouping, but rather a habit of plant growth – much like tree or shrub. It comes from standard French liane, itself from an Antilles French dialect word meaning to sheave.
Mixed-species tangle of lianas in tropical Australia
Lianas in Udawattakele, Sri Lanka
A canopy of Entada gigas that has formed over a monkey ladder vine (Bauhinia glabra) on Kauai, Hawaii
Liana tangle across a forest in the Western Ghats
A woody plant is a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody plants further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposed to herbaceous plants that die back to the ground until spring.
A section of rosemary stem, an example of a woody plant, showing a typical wood structure.
Winter buds on Cercidiphyllum japonicum