Читать книгу Cucurbits - James R. Myers - Страница 15

Most cucurbits have solitary tendrils at their leaf axils. Tendrils are unbranched in species such as cucumber and branched in luffa and other taxa. They are often coiled, helping plants to cling to trellises and other supports. Terminal adhesive pads develop on the tendrils of several species, allowing attachment to tree trunks and other large textured objects. Some cucurbits lack tendrils, e.g. squirting cucumber and bush cultivars of summer squash, while other cucurbits may have more than one tendril per node.

Tendrils in most of the cucurbit crops are interpreted as modified shoots. However, in luffa and other species, they are considered a stipule–stem complex. There are still other interpretations concerning the anatomical origins of cucurbit tendrils and research is ongoing. In cucumber, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) resulted in the transition from tendrils to tendril-less, removing the plant’s ability to climb (Wang et al., 2015).