A Plant Of All Trades
Lawyer vine Calamus muelleri, otherwise known as wait-a-while vine or rattan cane, is found in disturbed areas of subtropical rainforest in Australia. Visitors on adventure tours Australia should watch out for this prickly customer. The slender climbing palm has thorny stems with backward pointing hooks, enabling them to climb into the tree-tops to access sunlight. These hooks are also renowned for snagging bushwalker clothing and skin hence the common name: wait-a-while.
Despite its prickly appearance, the lawyer vine has been used by humans in a number of ingenious ways. During early settlement, surveyors divided the stems into chain lengths to use as a standard measure.
Traditional owners used the plant as a food source. The soft young shoots of the lawyer vine are sweet and its creamy-yellow fruit taste like date. As a tool it was used to extract honey from hives, probe hollow logs for eels, weave baskets and trap fish and mammals. In a modern-day lumberjack style, cane was also wrapped around trees and used as a counterbalance to allow a person to climb in search of food.
So on your next visit to the rainforest remember to look for — but don’t touch — this prickly and practical
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