Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 31, 2025
But he who believes in the slow modification of species will not be content simply to ascertain the homological nature of different kinds of tendrils; he will wish to learn, as far as is possible, by what actual steps leaves, flower-peduncles, &c., have had their functions wholly changed, and have come to serve merely as prehensile organs.
The tendrils and the flower-peduncles rise close side by side; and my son, William E. Darwin, made sketches for me of their earliest state of development in the hybrid P. floribunda. The two organs appear at first as a single papilla which gradually divides; so that the tendril appears to be a modified branch of the flower-peduncle.
I mention this species only because I have seen many proofs that the petioles in a state of nature are excited to movement by very slight pressure. For instance, I have found them embracing thin withered blades of grass, the soft young leaves of a maple, and the flower-peduncles of the quaking-grass or Briza.
Plants which climb by the aid of spontaneously revolving and sensitive petioles Clematis Tropaeolum Maurandia, flower-peduncles moving spontaneously and sensitive to a touch Rhodochiton Lophospermum internodes sensitive Solanum, thickening of the clasped petioles Fumaria Adlumia Plants which climb by the aid of their produced midribs Gloriosa Flagellaria Nepenthes Summary on leaf-climbers.
Mohl, who includes under the name of tendrils various organs having a similar external appearance, classes them according to their homological nature, as being modified leaves, flower-peduncles, &c. This would be an excellent scheme; but I observe that botanists are by no means unanimous on the homological nature of certain tendrils.
I have given one remarkable instance, namely that of the Maurandia semperflorens, the young flower-peduncles of which spontaneously revolve in very small circles, and bend when gently rubbed to the touched side; yet this plant certainly does not profit by these two feebly developed powers.
Kerner also finds, as we have seen, that the flower-peduncles of a large number of plants, if shaken or gently rubbed bend to this side. And it is young petioles and tendrils, whatever their homological nature may be, which move on being touched.
If any member of the Scrophulariaceae had possessed tendrils produced by the modification of flower-peduncles, I should have thought that this species of Maurandia had perhaps retained a useless or rudimentary vestige of a former habit; but this view cannot be maintained.
Not only leaves, but petioles of many kinds, some flower-peduncles, often decayed twigs of trees, bits of paper, feathers, tufts of wool and horse- hairs are dragged into their burrows for this purpose. I have seen as many as seventeen petioles of a Clematis projecting from the mouth of one burrow, and ten from the mouth of another.
A rigorous examination of other young plants would probably show slight spontaneous movements in their stems, petioles or peduncles, as well as sensitiveness to a touch. There is one other interesting point which deserves notice. We have seen that some tendrils owe their origin to modified leaves, and others to modified flower-peduncles; so that some are foliar and others axial in their nature.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking