Sheldon wrote:
>
> Peter "Always Wrong" Aitken wrote:
>
>>"Doug Kante" wrote:
>>
>>>"C. James Strutz" wrote:
>>>
>>>>You have accidentally hit on why some people don't eat animal products -
>>>>because animals are sentient beings and plants are not.
>>>
>>>Don't be so sure. Explain the following:
>>>
>>>Last time I planted pole beans, the setup involved a post eight feet high.
>>>Three ropes were attached to the top, and they led down at an angle to
>>>three stakes on the ground. At the bottom of each rope, seeds were
>>>planted.
>>>
>>>Ten feet away, at the other corner of the garden, there was another
>>>identical post.
>>>
>>>When the beans climbed to the top of the ropes and could go no further,
>>>they began "probing" horizontally, but not just in any direction. They
>>>headed toward the other post ten feet away, and ONLY in that direction.
>>>When the stems reached a certain length, they began to sag a bit, but
>>>eventually they joined, and formed a sort of bridge between the two posts.
>>>
>>>If there'd only been one post in the garden, you could theorize that the
>>>direction of growth was random, or influenced by sun or wind, or just pure
>>>chance. But, the plants on each post headed toward the other post.
>>>
>>>Sentient, or what? I've repeated the same planting arrangement this year.
>>>I'll post the results in early August.
>>>
>>
>>I wish I thought you were trying to be funny, but I am afraid you are
>>serious. Please tell me I am wrong.
>
>
> Search <"circumnutation"> [Charles Darwin]... and discover just how
> "Always Wrong" you really are. Any migrant grape picker should be able
> to explain just how "Always Wrong" you are.
>
> http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/plant...s/vines/1.html

Jayzus, you're such a windbag, all the more embarrassing when you're as
flat-out wrong as you are here...

Circumnutation has to do with the way vines seek surfaces to climb.
Nothing to do with vines growing towards each other. It's the descriptor
of the elliptical motion of twining plants.

From a good, basic site on the subject of vines.
<http://www.smgrowers.com/info/vine.asp>

Pastorio