Summer Grape


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	Summer Grape Summer Grape is probably the most common liana in southwest Virginia and is also a character in several interesting stories. For example, my father always told me that if I got lost in the woods, I could cut the stem of a grapevine and drink the lightly sweetened water that gushes down from the plant’s upper reaches. Although I was tempted, I never tried to drink from a grapevine because I knew that I would be killing a plant that took years to reach its current height. But I did spend a lot of time looking up at the leafy peak, wondering why grapevines grow so tall. Later, I came to understand trees as the plant version of our Cold War arms race. Every plant needs sunlight, and trees figured out that if they grew a bit taller than their neighbors they could unfold their canopy in full sun and suck up all of the energy raining down from above. The neighbors did not want to be outdone, so they grew just a little taller themselves. Back and forth, the height contest spun out of control, until it finally had to end when trees were no longer able to push water from their roots any higher into the sky. Each tree had thrust its leaves dozens of feet into the air, only to end up neck and neck with its neighbors after all. I like to think of grapes as free loaders in this forest Cold War. The lianas do not bother to build deep roots and strong trunks which would be necessary to hold up a tree-sized canopy. Instead, they simply use tendrils to latch onto shrubs and trees as they climb toward the light. In a fraction of the time (and for a fraction of the energy) that it takes for a tree to reach canopy height, a grapevine can wiggle its way up through the trees to achieve full sun. It is easy to see that grapes are the true winners in the forest arms race. <--Back to Lianas On to Dutchman's Pipe and Pipevine Swallowtail--> Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed. Add a comment