watching a plant grow

I have been watching a plant in action. The plant in question is a Catbrier (Smilax sp) shoot that first appeared about two weeks ago just off one of my habitual trails and there was a lot more action than you might expect. As I have seen it every morning for a while now, I have been able to track its every move. The Smilax in question actually came out of a earlier shoot that was nipped off -- probably by deer (or I could have broken it off myself on some early pass-through). The new shoot appeared from just below the broken-off stem of the old one and, like the original, it went straight up for a first few days. As with all new growth of this vine, the young shoots are soft but firm enough to defy gravity and they have an asparagus-like tip to which are attached little tendrils that are obviously intended to latch on to anything in its patch. But this was an open area in the woodland understory and there was nothing above to latch on to; this looked like a Smilax that was going nowhere. After a few days of strong upward growth, the shoot began to tip over as if unable to sustain itself in an upright position. Then something remarkable happened: the vine started an amazing circular exploration of the open areas around it. The long shoot, now bent over in a 90 degree L-shape, began to twist to the right as if it were searching for something. In the following few days it continued to revolve in a semi-circle. Yesterday, after revolving in a 270-degree arc, it found the bare twigs of a small, dead bush to latch on to. This was what it was looking for. As of this morning it had began to attach its tendrils to the thin twiggy branches of the bush and to push its forward growth onto this new support, a long extended twist away from its origin by the trail. Thus doth the Catbrier take over the world (or at least the wooded part of it).

Silent marsh this morning. The marsh and the creek were completely void of swallows and martins e although a few Purple Martin high flyers (probably migrating) did appear a little later on. Royal Terns came up the creek and there were high flying Osprey soaring and calling. The on-again/off-again Carolina Wren musical combat, started up again this morning but only half-heartedly compared with the vocal duels of a few weeks ago.

Eric Salzman