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These are strangler fig vines, which are usually coiled around huge Khmer spoong trees (aka the silk-cotton tree), which are like a banyan tree. The tree has a huge trunk, as large around as an oak tree, & the wandering strangler fig (charay), with its multiple roots, wraps itself around these large trees & spread. Sometimes compared to gigantic octopi, their seemingly endless roots coil more like reptiles than plants. Working together, the tree & vine can cleave massive stones in two, & eventually grow over the structures & temple ramparts. There is a special beauty when architecture and nature meet, yes?
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Asia
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