Living Motion of Vines

• Posted: March 4, 2008
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• Author: James DeRosa
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• Filed under: Agricultural
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• Tags: growth, twining, vines

Browsing around last night, I came across a fascinating video on the twining motion of vines. The plant shown in the video is a morning glory, although I still believe that young grape vines perform much the same way in order to find a suitable support on which to mature.

Soon after germination, the young plant begins an apparent tracking motion in which the shoot tip rotates counter clockwise, in a
nutational movement. The word "nutation" is defined as follows:

nu-ta-tion n.
Botany. A slight curving or circular movement in a stem, as of a twining plant, caused by irregular growth rates of different parts.

If the shoot comes in contact with a support of a desired shape, the rubbing stimulates a thigmotropic response. This, in turn, causes the shoot to begin wrapping around the newfound support. Vines characteristically show the most extreme nutational movements. This video was made up of stills taken with a digital camera at 10-minute intervals.

Please let me know if I am incorrect about grape vines performing such actions. I am almost positive they do.

Ultimately, I find it simply amazing how Mother Nature takes care of herself. Watching a video such as this makes one want to believe that plants truly do have a personality. The video almost has a romantic tone to it as well. So respect those vines! They seem to do a quite a bit of hard work to generate such a lovely product for us to enjoy.

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