vines

"other species form special tendrils that are either modified leaf parts or short stems derived from the growth of auxiliary buds. tendrils coil around small objects with which they come into contact- the stems of other plants. garden stakes, and string supports." from :botany for gardeners" by brian capon p. 114 ____________________________________________________ high summer kicks into gear on campus and in the back yard and there are various types of vining plants working away out there ( and it is all geared toward reproduction )...the top photo isn't of any sort of tendril...that's a rope of twiners ( from the spiral they wrap around the support ) that the chinese yams have been producing for months...the second photo is of some of the multitudinous aerial bulbs the yams will kick out...i've already collected some form the vines and from the ground beneath the vines...even so there will doubtlessly be new yam growth that will have to be culled in the spring...the next two photos are of the above mentioned tendrils...in the third photo you can easily see the tendrils from the squash coiled around the sunflower stalk ( it is one of the reasons i planted the sunflowers and i am pleased that a native species can stand in for maize that would not survive the season because of the squirrels ) if you look closely at the fourth photo you can see the squash tendrils coiled on the scarlet runner bean vine in two places...vines vining on vines which is okay with me...the bottom photo is the scarlet runner beans twining down the jute twine and garden stake trellis which will eventually bring the beans into contact with the russian olive bush ( those are sweet potato plants on the ground...they're working on vines too )...curious to see the results of that...capon's book is worth the read by the way...easy to understand for the non-botanist but technical enough that i now know the ( doubtlessly an elementary botanical concept...but i never claimed to be well educated in biology or botany...just geeked on plants and astonished by the whole idea of agriculture ) difference between a rhyzome and a stolon.