Tui De Roy / Woka Palm (Livingstonia rotundifolia) and buttress in lowland rainforest understory, Tangkoko-Dua Saudara Nature Reserve, Sulawesi, Indonesia

Doug Wechsler / Man by buttress root of Mora tree {Mora excelsa}, valuable timber tree. Guyana, South America

Pete Oxford / Buttress root of fig tree {Ficus sp} in rainforest Yasuni NP, Ecuador

Pete Oxford / Buttress root of fig tree {Ficus sp} in rainforest Yasuni NP, Ecuador

Pete Oxford / Kapok (Ceiba sp) buttress roots and tourist, Yasuni National Park, Amazon Rainforest, Ecuador

Suzi Eszterhas / Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) male sitting on buttress of tree, western Uganda

Konrad Wothe / Buttress roots in rainforest, Daintree National Park, North Queensland, Australia

Kevin Schafer / Yellow Mombin (Spondias mombin) buttress root, Los Haitises National Park, Dominican Republic

Piotr Naskrecki / Higher Termite (Cubitermes sp) mound against buttress root, Guinea

Christian Ziegler / Almendro (Dipteryx panamensis) buttress roots, Smithsonian Tropical Research Station, Barro Colorado Island, Panama

Christian Ziegler / Buttress roots of a large rainforest tree, Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia

Kevin Schafer / Fig (Ficus sp) tree trunk with vine, Queensland, Australia