Forest Floor

Taken for the Fujimugs "Texture" challenge. Placed 43/81. This version has a reduced border with a clean edge, rather than the large, feathered edge border I submitted for the challenge.
The root shown here is that of the Strangler Fig which makes it's way in life by wrapping it's aerial roots around host trees, ultimately consuming them.
The host in this instance is a Hoop Pine, whose leaves can be seen littering the floor. These leaves are springy to squeeze, and are smooth to stroke in one direction, but sharp and prickly in the other.
It is not uncommon to find a strangler fig that has outlived it's host by many years - the host will rot away, leaving the fig as a tubular maze of roots towering into the forest canopy. This may take some time in this case though, hoop pines live for around 450 years, and I would expect, take a long time to decay as well.

This image was captured in the D'Aguilar National Park on Mount Glorious, on a wet, overcast afternoon.