Tendrils

Evolution and species

Climbing habits in plants support themselves to reach the canopy in order to receive more sunlight resources and increase the diversification in flowering plants. Tendrils are a plant organ that is derived from various morphological structures such as stems, leaves and inflorescences. Even though climbing habits are involved in the angiosperms, gymnosperms, and ferns, tendrils are often shown in angiosperms and little in ferns. Based on their molecular basis of tendril development, studies showed that tendrils' helical growth performance is not correlated with ontogenetic origin, instead, there are multiple ontogenetic origins. 17 types of tendrils have been identified by their ontogenetic origins and growth pattern, and each type of tendril can be involved more than once within angiosperms. Common fruits and vegetables that have tendrils includes watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)'s derived from modified stem, pea (Pisum sativum)'s derived from modified terminal leaflets and common grape vine (Vitis vinifera)'s is modified from whole inflorescence.