Bine (botany)

A bine is a climbing plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 which climbs by its shoots growing in a helix

Helix

A helix is a type of smooth space curve, i.e. a curve in three-dimensional space. It has the property that the tangent line at any point makes a constant angle with a fixed line called the axis. Examples of helixes are coil springs and the handrails of spiral staircases. A "filled-in" helix – for...

 around a support. It is distinct from a vine

Vine

A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...

, which climbs using tendrils or suckers.

The stems of many bines are rough or have downward-pointing bristles to aid their grip.

The rotation of the shoot tip during climbing is autonomous, and does not (as sometimes imagined) derive from the shoot following the sun around the sky – the direction of twist does not therefore depend upon which side of the equator

Equator

An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

 the plant is growing. This is shown by the fact that some bines always twine clockwise

Clockwise

Circular motion can occur in two possible directions. A clockwise motion is one that proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top...

, including runner bean

Runner bean

Phaseolus coccineus, the runner bean or scarlet runner bean since most varieties have red flowers and multicolored seeds, though some have white flowers and white seeds, is a plant in the Fabaceae family. Runner beans have also been called "Oregon Lima Bean". and in Nahuatl "ayocotl" or in Spanish...

 (Phaseolus coccineus) and bindweed

Bindweed

Bindweed may refer to:* Convolvulaceae , a family including about 60 genera and more than 1,650 species** Calystegia , a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants...

 (Convolvulus species), while others twine anticlockwise, including French bean

French Bean

Mr. Bean's Holiday is a 2007 British comedy film by Rowan Atkinson, which was released in the United Kingdom and Australia on 24 March 2007 and on 24 August 2007 in the United States and Canada. It is the second film based on the television series Mr...

 (Phaseolus vulgaris) and climbing honeysuckle

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, 100 of which occur in China; Europe, India and North America have only about 20 native species each...

s (Lonicera species).