Bine (botany)

A bine is a climbing plant that climbs by its shoots growing in a helix around a support, in contrast to vines, which climb using tendrils or suckers. Many bines have rough stems or downward-pointing bristles to aid their grip. Hops (used in flavoring beer) are a commercially important example of a bine.

The rotation of the shoot tip during climbing is autonomous and does not (as sometimes imagined) derive from the shoot's following the sun around the sky – the direction of twist does not therefore depend upon which side of the equator the plant is growing. This is shown by the fact that some bines always twine clockwise, including runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus) and bindweed (Convolvulus species), while others twine anticlockwise, including French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and climbing honeysuckles (Lonicera species).

The contrasting rotations of the bindweed and the honeysuckle was the theme of the satirical song, Misalliance, written and sung by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann.

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