My mom has a pergola and every year, the grape vines will wrap itself around it. Sometimes it reaches for objects that are leaning against it (even the chairs!) or it will even grab other plants that aren’t directly towards the sunlight.
How do they know that they can grab these objects as well instead of just wrapping itself around the pergola?
In: Other
Oh it’s so cool. They send out little feelers that wander until they touch something. As long as the vine is close they’ll grab it and grow along it. YouTube a Timelapse of a vine plant growing, it’s so neat
They might not have eyes in the way you imagine, but they certainly have the ability to detect both light and the direction of gravity, as well as the presence of nutrients.
They really don’t know.
Vines (Like those of the Grape variety) will aimlessly twirl around until they find something to latch to.
They’re like blindfolded party-goers playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey. They just feel their way around until they hit something!
They’re like me at the buffet, reaching for everything within grasp whether they need it or not.
I’ll add my answer to the pile. Here’s a pea plant. About halfway through you can see it start reaching its tendrils out.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSs3yoR-YkU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSs3yoR-YkU)
That circular motion in known as circumnutation. (That can be you WORD OF THE DAY!) The plant does it by growing unevenly. The growth region moves around the stem circularly, making it bend away from the part that’s growing the most.
The tendrils have sensors on them that detect when the contact something and then they start to curl in that direction, wrapping around it.
They don’t know they just twirl around (very slowly) until they get stuck on something, look for timelapses on YouTube, once you see it fast it makes sense
Latest Answers