Counter-clockwise pole beans!

[Ken Lichtsinn]

Now this has got me all tied up in knots. My pole beans always g

around the pole counter-clockwise (when viewed from the top down). have tried to force them to go clockwise but they simply reverse and g back to counter-clockwise. What I'm wondering is this: in the souther hemisphere, do they go clockwise? Do we have any members in Australi or New Zealand who raise pole beans? (when they can find time fro trying to kill themselves hang gliding or bunjee jumping!

-- Ken Lichtsinn

[Salmon Egg]

Your description would be more precise if you related it to right or left hand helices (screw thread. I think that you are describing a right hand thread. As the plant grows upward, the leading edge goes.

I think that the helix is primarily genetic. Like trees, they beans are likely to be both left and right handed with one form predominating. I doubt that mechanical forces are at work. If they were, it would be a coriolis force. Small as that force is, the plant would be deflected in the opposite direction from what you observe. It all depends upon the handedness of the helix. That would account for a difference in between Northern and Southern hemispheres. Coriolis force in the Northern hemisphere deflects moving things to the right. That is what causes clockwise motion of air around high pressure areas in the atmosphere.

I was thinking that the plant might be growing fast enough so that the apparent motion of the sun could affect the direction of growth. That would also account for North-South differences. Again, your description indicates the wrong direction.

Bill

[Jim Kingdon]

Inquiring minds want to know!

(Oh, and at the risk of contaminating a perfectly good discussion with facts, "the vast majority of twining vines wind around a support in a right-handed direction, about 10% twine in a left-handed direction, and a very few are able to twine in both directions."