Riverbank grape schools scientists.
Vitis riparia, grape of the riverbank, is doing just fine during this hot, dry summer with only a mucky swamp nearby.
This agile vine scrambles up over anything, flexible tendrils reaching out and waiving around until they find something to grab on to. Once a tendril encounters a foothold, the end of the tendril wraps around it securely and then shortens, winching up the rest of the plant by coiling into a corkscrew-like helix. Clever.
But rather than twisting only in one direction – which would twist the entire plant – the two ends of the coiled section curl up in opposite directions with a short uncoiled stretch between them. Brilliant.
"Vines and trees will teach you that which you will never learn from masters.”
Bernard of Clairvaux
Harvard Scientists spent a lot of time studying this phenomenon and eventually patented the first artificial spring that doesn't twist at either end when pulled. (By the way, cucumbers and sweet peas do it too.)
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