My family has some Bottle Gourd vines growing on our back yard porch and I noticed something pretty cool. From the looks of it, the vines find strings (used for support) and start to loop around them in spirals. Sometimes, the vines crate a spring like structure after a small part grips onto a string. I have no clue how the vines can do this, and am absolutely amazed at what plants are able to do! When I ask my parents how this happens, they give me a spiritual answer which is summed up to the plant having their own set of eyes we can't comprehend. I understand that it's possibly a strait forward answer, but can someone please explain how this process works?
by MrFudge2005
4 Comments
They grow out away from the main stem of the plant in search of something which they can grab onto for support
They have no way of knowing that the string is there, they grow and when they come in contact with something, they can sense it, they bend in the direction of the contact to wrap around it and then the coiling is just the continuation of that wrapping
Sometimes they do not come into contact with anything so there isn’t anything for them to coil around, in such cases they often wrap up around themselves and form a tight bundle
If you watch the position of loose/seeking tendrils during the course of a day, you’ll notice they change. They find trellises via physical contact. The tendril spins around in a circle reaching out as far as it can, and when it touches something it starts to curl around it, eventually making the little coils. You can find some sped up footage of this behavior. It isn’t looking or sensing anything, it just flails around until it finds something to grab lol. Plants do have “sight” in that they can sense light and grow towards it.
Thigmotropism is the term.
I had this exact plant in my yard as a kid!! I loved playing with the lil coils