I think the hemiepiphytic suggestion is the closest. At that distance it is hard to tell but on enlarging the photo, the plant itself looks like a philodendron. They can be fully epiphytic, hemiepiphytic or even terrestrial but they tend strongly to the hemiepiphytic category and of two types: primary hemiepiphytic - growing from a seed high in the rain forest canopy but with age, sending roots down to the ground; and secondary hemiepiphytic - starting life as a seed from the ground or very close to the ground, then climbing the trees up into the canopy. Eventually they become fully epiphytic and the roots simply disappear.

Did you need to ID the habit (epiphyte, hemi or terrestrial/liana) or did you need to confirm an ID of the plant itself? If the first, I'd say you nailed it regardless of the answer, as it could be any of the three :-)

Hi gardengal48!

Thank you for responding so quick! so the assignment was to go onto google maps and walk around a rainforest in Brazil and take screen shots of (Liana, Epiphyte, Hemiepiphyte ect ect) I "took" that photo I attached and labelled it as Epiphyte. I got the mark as correct and then a couple days later they re-marked it saying it was wrong and it was actually a Liana. I do not know much about lianas but with my quick google search and wiki search it does not look like one. It looks to be a philodendron like you said and what I thought originally. Just trying to see if I should bring it up to my teacher or if the TA is correct in thinking it is a liana.

I think you could certainly make a case for being correct with your original answer!! And if the TA can can confirm the plant ID - hard to do from that kind of photo with certainty - then neither he nor you is incorrect. That's a win-win in my book!

'Remote sensing botany study'. You'd have to agree, the way that plant has a stem coming up from the ground it can't be an epiphyte. Hemiepiphyte is a possibility but I get the impression that plant originated in the ground so technically would be a liana. Although, from that photo can't be 100% sure that it did actually originate on the ground. Bit difficult for a school level assignment.