The inscrutable po on 9/8/2008 at 17:07
I was taking a walk near a river. There were a lot of vines. Having watched them grow on a David Attenborough special, I thought I'd try some experiments. I put my finger up against one of the tendrils near the tip of the plant. After thirty seconds I thought I saw some curling. I put my finger back again and it was mostly too slow to see it happening, but in a few minutes the vine had wrapped around my finger twice and was on it's way to imprisoning me like it was Viktoria. The vines also encircled and gripped some sticks that I held against them, but I didn't stay long enough to see them start twisting and coiling into the spring shapes that they use to pull themselves along. Had I fallen asleep against the plant, there's no telling what might have happened. :eek:
Shadak on 9/8/2008 at 17:35
that's just freaky cool!
Schwaa2 on 14/8/2008 at 23:28
Yes! I had a venus flytrap for awhile, it was cool!
It died though, they take TONS of water and I can be forgetful :(
ercles on 15/8/2008 at 01:11
I'm pretty sure it's a response controlled by plant hormones, similar to the ones used to make the plant grow in the direction of sunlight. This is a response commonly used in the tendrils of vines so that they wrap around solid structures for stability.
Plants are deceptively interesting sometimes...
Peanuckle on 23/8/2008 at 02:35
You now have a TTLG mandate:
Get a bunch of sticks.
Arrange said stick on the vines in the shape of a female body.
Print out a picture of Viktoria's head and put it on top of the vine body.
Post pics.
