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Australian Native Plants

Vines, native and domesticated

11 years ago

Just wondering if anyone has knowledge on the habit of vines always climbing trees the same way. We have an Orange Droplet Vine that always travels anty clockwise going up plus a Liana that is doing the same.

While out in the scrub, on the river today I noticed all the varieties of vines do the same. Doing a search on the net apparently 98 percent of the vines world wide do the same.

I would like to hear if anyone has heard why this is so.

It can't be affected by the Corolus efect otherwise it would be reversed in the northern hemisphere, which it is not.

Regards,
Nod

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Comments (4)

tropicbreezent
11 years ago
It's just in the genetics. The plant must twine to climb so uneven growth on the vine makes that happen. It's 'programmed' to shorten cells on one side.

I came across this many years ago trying to get a sure method of telling the difference between Dioscorea bulbifera and Dioscorea transversa. Bulbifera goes clockwise whilst transversa goes anticlockwise. Through observation around the same time I found that most vines seemed to go clockwise. This was on a local level, in my part of the country. I guessed that would also hold for the rest of the world.

The coriolus effect only works on huge bodies of fluid, such as the oceans and the atmosphere. It has no effect on a micro level. The old stories of water draining from baths or sinks going in one direction are a myth. Those amounts of water are far too small to be even slightly affected. And plants are affected even less.
oldnod
Original Author
11 years ago
Genetic now that has to be the explanation, thanks Tropic.

Regards Nod
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tete_a_tete
11 years ago
I've wondered about this too, and I decided that maybe the (majority of) climbers want to climb anti-clockwise because they are following the sun.

So, from the East, they head to the West. Then (so goes my theory) they head a little South because come the next day, the sun will be shining a little South of East. In Summer anyway. Not in Winter.

Well, it's just a theory.
tropicbreezent
11 years ago
Keep in mind, about a third of Australia is in the tropics, so over the period of a year the sun shines from both the south and the north. If you're actually on the equator the sun spends 6 months to the south and the other 6 months to the north. If it was a matter of "following the sun" then in the tropics the vines would change direction of twining when the sun shifted.

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