Jeremy: It's definitely a strangling vine of some sort, although from the image it's pretty hard to tell. There are three different leaves in the image and it's hard to say which, if any, come from the vine. 'Strangling fig' is a common one in tropical forests. There are lianas in the tropics as well, and in more temperate climates things like dog strangling vine and oriental bittersweet. If you want a quick biology lesson, organisms generally have one of five types of relationships with each other: mutualism, commensalism, neutralism, amensalism or parasitism. With mutualism, both organisms benefit each other. With commensalism, one is benefited and the other is unaffected. With neutralism neither is affected positively or negatively. With amensalism one is negatively affected and the other is unaffected. Parasitism is where one benefits at the expense of the other. This is a case of parasitism in the plant world.
As to the image, it reminds me of the painting by (can't think of the artist's name) of humans souls being dragged into hell.
Well done!
Mike.
