Wait-a-while is both a palm and a vine, being one of only 3 palm species which naturally occur at Springbrook. But unlike most palms, this palm grows like a vine, using long, barbed tendrils to attach itself to other plants, while growing upwards toward the light.
If you get too close to Wait-a-while, the recurved barbs on the tendrils will most likey catch on you or your clothes and you'll have to 'wait a while' to detach them!
Wait-a-while is an opportunistic coloniser and is typically seen filling a canopy gap (caused by a branch or tree fall), where a sudden dose of sunlight allows the rapid growth of colonisers such as Wait-a-while.