Friday, June 6, 2025
54.5 °f
Magee
  • About Us
  • Our Team
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
MageeNews.com
Advertisement
  • Home
  • Message from the Prez
  • News
  • Happenings
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Schools
  • Videos
  • Ducks on the Pond
  • Home
  • Message from the Prez
  • News
  • Happenings
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Schools
  • Videos
  • Ducks on the Pond
No Result
View All Result
MageeNews.com
No Result
View All Result
Home Happenings

What Makes Vines Climb

Sue Honea by Sue Honea
May 6, 2020
in Happenings, Out & About
0
Vine-Felder Rushing
0
SHARES
57
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward MageeNews.com a small commission – at no extra cost to you.

Written by Felder Rushing

Felder Rushing

Climbing vines!

Related posts

Mark Your Calendar!  June 21, 2025, Worship Night with Kayla Berry

Mark Your Calendar! June 21, 2025, Worship Night with Kayla Berry

June 6, 2025
Ag Commissioner Andy Gipson Announces Details Ahead of the 166th Mississippi State Fair

Ag Commissioner Andy Gipson Announces Details Ahead of the 166th Mississippi State Fair

June 6, 2025

Ever notice how a cat can’t help raising its rear when you stroke its back? Vines do the same thing. Sorta.

I spent a few minutes the other day carefully uncoiling small vines from a bottle tree, and trying to get some to wrap around a stake. It made me recall one of the marvels from my college plant physiology classes, about what makes vines climb.

Not all vines twine, of course; some have to be tied, others use either little aerial rootlets to attach to supports, and some use backwards-facing thorns as hooks. But what about those that do twirl around whatever they touch? Not all do it, but those that do are pretty determined.

Without getting into calcium pathways, contractile proteins and all that, the way some plants grow towards things, the turning response to stimuli called tropisms, can be pretty amazing.

We are all familiar with how sunflowers follow the sun through phototropism, and early roots “know” to grow down through the geotropic effects of gravity. There’s even one called skototropism, in which vine seedlings on a jungle floor grow towards shadows in order to find something to climb.

But my favorite is thigmotropism, or towards touch. It’s what causes some vine stems or their little support tendrils to wrap around things. Waving around in the air at first, when one of these touches a support, be it a small tree, fencepost, or trellis, the touched side starts growing more slowly while cells on the “away” side keep growing normally, which pushes the vine towards the support. And the coiling takes it from there.

By the way, just as it’s a myth that water swirls down drains either clockwise or anticlockwise depending on north or south of the Equator, vines don’t coil naturally one direction or the other. I have had some tendrils on vines actually reverse their direction from one week to the next.

It’s just one of those little things to think about while knocking around the garden, especially if you grow different vines. Funny how most gardeners think it is a no-no to plant more than one vine near one another; I usually plant perennial clematis and climbing roses together, for example, and because my native maypop passion flower vine gets really boogered up by gulf fritillary butterfly larvae, I mask the bareness by growing it with spring-flowering crossvine and yellow Carolina jessamine.

One of my latest projects is a gourd house, which is tall posts with covered with heavy gauge wire mesh like they use to reinforce concrete walks and patios. Gourd vines make great shade very quickly, and end up with dozens of gourds hanging down by mid-summer. To further the interest I interplants a few other annual vines such as black-eyed Susan vine, night-flowering moonvine, hummingbird-attracting cypress vine, and heirloom hyacinth bean with its lavender flowers and deep purple pods.

I don’t overdo this because some vines are real thugs and will overgrow and shade out others, but it’s an interesting effect. And because the support mesh is such heavy duty mesh I can easily neaten it all up in early winter with my string trimmer.

Anyway, as I prepare my summer garden to do its thing, I have found myself using all sorts of supports for various vines, from an arbor to tie my climbing rose onto and purple-painted tee-pees for my beans, and knobby rebar for tomatoes.

Some I’m having to tie up, some are doing their thigmo-thing on their own. Some are so aggressive I’m having to move my chair to keep it from getting wrapped up overnight.

 

Felder Rushing is a Mississippi author, columnist, and host of the “Gestalt Gardener” on MPB Think Radio. Email gardening questions to rushingfelder@yahoo.com.

MageeNews.com is an online news website covering Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the State of Mississippi.

Tags: bottle treeclimbingFelder RushingMageeNews.comvines
Previous Post

Barnett Reservoir Begins Reopening Thursday

Next Post

SCA Top of the Class

Next Post

SCA Top of the Class

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Latest News

AG Demands Answers from Chinese App WeChat

by Sue Honea
June 6, 2025
0
AG Fitch Recognizes Mississippi Heroes Who Serve Victims of Crime

  MageeNews.com is the online news source for Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the state of Mississippi  ...

Read more

WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES PRESIDENT’S AND DEAN’S LIST

by Sue Honea
June 6, 2025
0
William Carey University Announces 2023-24 Theme Verse

 William Carey University announces the undergraduate President’s and Dean’s List for the Spring 2025 term. President’s List Scholars have a...

Read more

Mark Your Calendar! June 21, 2025, Worship Night with Kayla Berry

by Sue Honea
June 6, 2025
0
Mark Your Calendar!  June 21, 2025, Worship Night with Kayla Berry

  MageeNews.com is the online news source for Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the state of Mississippi

Read more
Facebook Twitter Youtube RSS Instagram
MageeNews.com

MageeNews.com is THE source for news and views in Simpson County, Mississippi, and beyond.

Recent News

AG Fitch Recognizes Mississippi Heroes Who Serve Victims of Crime

AG Demands Answers from Chinese App WeChat

June 6, 2025
William Carey University Announces 2023-24 Theme Verse

WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES PRESIDENT’S AND DEAN’S LIST

June 6, 2025
Mark Your Calendar!  June 21, 2025, Worship Night with Kayla Berry

Mark Your Calendar! June 21, 2025, Worship Night with Kayla Berry

June 6, 2025
Magee, US
Friday, June 6, 2025
scattered clouds
54.5 ° f
45%
3.47mh
25%
66 f 45 f
Wed
68 f 40 f
Thu
71 f 44 f
Fri
75 f 46 f
Sat

© 2023 MageeNews.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Sue Stuff
  • News
  • Happenings
  • Schools
  • Sports
  • Obituaries
  • Ducks on the Pond
  • Videos

© 2023 MageeNews.com