Vine
A plant with trailing or climbing stems, often using supports.
A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The term can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, as when used in wicker work. In parts of the world, including the British Isles, "vine" usually applies exclusively to grapevines, while "climber" is used for all climbing plants.
- Growth forms
- Trailing, scandent, lianas, runners
- Climbing methods
- Twining stems, adventitious roots, twining petioles, tendrils, adhesive pads, thorns, hooked structures, stem flattening under bark
- Notable examples
- Kudzu, Japanese honeysuckle, poison ivy, bittersweet, morning glory, ivy, climbing rose, kiwifruit, hops
- Key innovation
- Climbing habit evolved independently in several plant families
- Scientific classification
- Darwin classified five classes: twining plants, leaf climbers, tendril bearers, root climbers, hook climbers
Lore & Background
Certain plants always grow as vines, while a few grow as vines only part of the time. For instance, poison ivy and bittersweet can grow as low shrubs when support is not available, but become vines when support is available. A vine displays a growth form based on very long stems, which has two purposes: it may use rock exposures, other plants, or other supports for growth rather than investing energy in supportive tissue, enabling the plant to reach sunlight with a minimum investment of energy. This has been a highly successful growth form for plants such as kudzu and Japanese honeysuckle, both invasive exotics in parts of North America. Some tropical vines develop skototropism, growing away from light, a type of negative phototropism, to reach a tree trunk to climb to brighter regions. The vine growth form may also enable plants to colonize large areas quickly, even without climbing high, as with periwinkle and ground ivy.
Reader's Guide
Vines are significant for their evolutionary success and diversification across many taxonomic groups. They have evolved independently in several plant families using various climbing methods, including twining stems, adventitious roots, tendrils, adhesive pads, thorns, and even stem flattening under bark. Vines widely differ in size, form, and evolutionary origin. Darwin classified five classes: twining plants, leaf climbers, tendril bearers, root climbers, and hook climbers. Vines usually reside in tropical locations and have the unique ability to climb. They are able to grow in both deep shade and full sun due to a wide range of phenotypic plasticity. Climbing prevents shading by neighbors and allows the vine to grow out of reach of herbivores. Some vines, like the twining Convolvulus arvensis, increase twining in response to herbivore damage, and the tendrils of Cayratia japonica can distinguish between same-species and different-species plants. The climbing habit has been implicated as a key innovation associated with evolutionary success and diversification.
Did You Know?
- Some vines, like poison ivy and bittersweet, can grow as low shrubs when support is not available but become vines when support is available.
- The climbing fetterbush directs its stem into a crevice in the bark of fibrous barked trees, where the stem flattens and grows up the tree under the host tree's outer bark.
- The direction of twining in bines is autonomous and does not depend on the sun or hemisphere; some twine clockwise (e.g., runner bean) and others anticlockwise (e.g., black bryony).
- The tendrils of perennial vine Cayratia japonica are more likely to coil around nearby plants of another species than of the same species, demonstrating the vine's ability to distinguish self from non-self.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a vine in botany?
A vine is a plant whose growth habit is trailing or scandent (climbing) rather than upright, and the word can also name the flexible stems themselves when used in crafts like wickerwork. In the British Isles and a few other regions, however, "vine" is reserved for grapevines alone, while all other climbing plants are simply called climbers.
How do vines actually climb?
They employ a range of mechanical strategies, including twining stems, tendrils, adhesive pads, thorns, hooked structures, adventitious roots, and even flattening the stem against bark. Darwin grouped these into five classes: twining plants, leaf climbers, tendril bearers, root climbers, and hook climbers.
What's the difference between a vine and a climber?
In most contexts "vine" is the broad botanical term for any plant with a trailing or scandent stem, whereas "climber" is a more general everyday label for anything that ascends. The distinction becomes strict in places like the British Isles, where "vine" means grapevine specifically and every other climbing plant is a "climber."
What are some well-known vine species?
Familiar examples span kudzu, Japanese honeysuckle, poison ivy, bittersweet, morning glory, ivy, climbing rose, kiwifruit, and hops. These belong to many unrelated families, which is significant because the climbing habit evolved independently in several lineages rather than descending from a single vine ancestor.
Did all vines share a common climbing ancestor?
No; the trailing and scandent growth form is a case of convergent evolution, having arisen separately in multiple plant families. That is why Darwin's five-class scheme is organized around the mechanical method of ascent (twining, tendrils, roots, hooks, leaf attachment) rather than around shared phylogeny.
More in Botany & Plant Biology 1-17
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record