Plant tendrils and bioinspired desings

Strong woody tendrils of grapes

Coiled tendril of grape around supporting material

Climbing plants deploy outstanding grasping strategies to climb using extremely flexible, sensitive, and filiform robotic organs known as 'tendrils'. It has been perceived that tendrils have 360° in-built sensors to locate supports around them for the plant to climb. Some plant tendrils (e.g. grapes) have very strong natural designs and materials that result in a strong death-grip like 'Geckos' lizards. It has been physically observed that grape tendrils'  are so strong and woody in nature that after drying, they remain attach to props.

Different plants use varied twisting and untwisting maneuvers to climb and cling around existing supporting material. If there are props at a distance, tendrils grow spirally and further projectile (jump in particular direction and angle with particular speed) using plant water & sap to control maneuvers and grasp.

It has also been observed plants determine and modify shapes, sizes, thickness, length of tendrils after recognizing existing supporting material around them. Generally, apical new tendrils of cucurbits grow straight and without twisted coils, and auxiliary tendrils are of various sizes and shapes with coils to climb around.

Apical straight tendrils in sponge gourd 

Twisted and coiled auxiliary tendrils in sponge gourd

Bitter gourd tendril trailing around climbing and untwisted coils

Apical tendrils in summer squash

Different plants have been evolved using all these innovations and technique. Traditional growers have observed and applied all these inspiring designs and innovations from agriculture to architecture. These bioinspired designs are further being studied and deployed under mainstream of biomimicry to design numerous industrial materials to intelligent robotic applications.

The bio-mimetic movements and coiled structures of plant tendrils have been studied and deployed to design fabricating strategy for crude oil cleanup to new concepts of robot grasping. it is also expected that the unique structures, shapes, movements can help to design numerous applications in energy conservation, tissue engineering, intelligent devices and smart textile & sports materials in the near future.

This article is result of  personal observations and imagination of Vipesh Garg, and proof read by Premila Parera from Urban Leaves, India.

Poor grain formation in corn-ears

Uneven poor grain filling in corn

Poor grain-filling is a common physiological problem that numerous gardeners encounter while growing corn in their food gardens. It is a condition of poor and uneven grain/kernel formation on the ear as a result of unsuccessful fertilisation of ovules due to poor pollination. It is influenced by many factors at various stages of growth of  the corn plant. Some of the common factors are below

1. Heat stress and less humidity

2. Drought and lack of irrigation 

Heat stress and less humidity 

In summers, particularly due to high heat and less moisture in  the air, pollen viability decreases and pollen-carrying silk hairs desiccate leading to unsuccessful pollination and fertilisation, resulting in poor grain formation and smaller kernel size.

Drought and lack of irrigation 

Due to scanty irrigation, particularly at the silking stage and ear formation, plants get stressed, resulting in poor pollination, unsuccessful fertilisation and abortion of developing grain/kernels causing uneven grain formation.

Uneven poor grain formation (Photo credit: Urban Leaves, Mumbai)

Remedies

Ensure regular irrigation particularly at the silking stage and ear formation.

Hand/manual pollinate to enhance successful pollination and fertilisation.

Sow corn just before or during the rainy seasons when there is optimum temperature and moisture in the air.

Use heirloom/often-pollinated local seeds which are more resilient and adaptive to local climate conditions

Technical trivia

Corn has separate male and female inflorescence (group of flowers). The female inflorescence is known as cob/ear on which grains develop and the male inflorescence is known as tessel.

Silking is the stage at which silky hairs emerge from the cob. These receive pollen to fertilise the ovum for successful grain formation.

Ear is the stalk on which grains/kernels form in an arrangement. 

This small piece of information is collected by Vipesh Garg and proof-read by Premila Parera from Urban Leaves, Mumbai.