climbing plant

Any plant that supports its non-woody growth by clinging to a wall or twining around another plant. In this way a climbing plant can reach the light more rapidly than it would if it had to develop a woody structure of its own.

At least six distinct and different ways of climbing are used by plants: (1) by twining their stems round a support in an anticlockwise or clockwise manner (for example the honeysuckle or hop); (2) by using tendrils (for example the passion flower or sweet pea); (3) by using aerial roots (as in the ivy or Virginia creeper); (4) by hooked prickles (for example roses or brambles); (5) by petioles or leaf stalks (for example clematis or nasturtium); (6) by leaf stipules modified as tendrils (as in Smilax). Some plants climb by simply scrambling through other plants, for example Polygonum. Climbing plants are cultivated in gardens for their beauty and to cover structures such as bare walls, trellises, pergolas, arbours, and tree stumps. Hardy perennial climbing plants include Aristolochia, Campsis, Celastrus, Clematis, Hedera, Hydrangea, Lonicera, Polygonum, Parthenocissus, Vitis, and Wisteria.