Garden and orchard · Vitis vinifera (Beispielrebe / example grapevine)
Grapes and their climbing helpers
What keeps the vine on its trellis? Puschel searches for a knot while Flauschi spots a curled tendril.
The short answer
A grapevine is a climbing plant. Its thin tendrils curl around suitable supports and hold on. The individual fruits in a grape bunch are berries. Their colour depends on variety.
An imagined Wusel scene
Puschel and Flauschi investigate
Puschel looks behind the wooden trellis. Puschel“Who tied the vine up? I cannot find a knot!” He keeps his paws behind his back.
Flauschi holds an open paw below a little spiral. Flauschi“A tendril has wrapped itself around the support. It helps the vine climb.” She does not pull it.
Puschel follows the green shoot to a dark bunch of grapes. Puschel“First the climbing helper, then the fruit discovery!” They leave everything growing; adults help with harvesting and preparation.
The fruit
The individual fruits in a bunch of grapes are berries. Ripe grapes may be greenish, yellow, reddish or blue-purple, depending on variety; some have pips and others have few or none.
Leaf and plant
Grapevines are woody climbing plants with lobed, toothed leaves. Their slender tendrils can wrap around a support.
What makes it special
For a good crop, vines need a suitable warm, sunny position. Grapes do not become sweeter after picking in the way that some other fruits ripen.
Try explaining it
What helps a grapevine climb?
Choose a), b) or c), then explain your choice.
- a)Small clinging roots growing straight from each berry.
- b)A strong self-supporting trunk like a free-standing tree.
- c)Tendrils coiling around supports.
Show the explanation
Correct: c): Tendrils coiling around supports.
A grapevine is a climbing plant. Its thin tendrils curl around suitable supports and hold on. The individual fruits in a grape bunch are berries. Their colour depends on variety.
Word help
- coil
- Wire wound into several turns. Current through it creates a magnetic field.
- fruit cluster
- Several fruits attached together on one part of a plant.
- trellis
- A framework that supports climbing or trained plants.
Explore in more detail
Here you will find longer explanations and further details. You can explore them together.
Why do tendrils wrap around supports?
Grapevines bear thin tendrils. On touching a suitable support, continued growth can make them coil around it. This helps a shoot climb towards light without building the thick, self-supporting trunk of a large tree. Tendrils are plant parts, not animal arms.
Compare and understand
A bunch of grapes contains many individual fruits; the bunch is a fruit cluster. Grapes do not become sweeter after picking like some ripening fruit. Adults prepare them appropriately for a child’s age because whole round grapes are a choking risk, especially for younger children.
An optional question for further exploration
You can use the longer explanation above. This is extra, not needed for the first quiz.
An extra question
What helps a grapevine hold on to a trellis?
Show answer
Slender tendrils wrap around the support. The berries themselves do not hold the plant in place.
A grape still tastes sour. Will it become much sweeter by itself after picking?
Show answer
No. Grapes should ripen on the vine; they do not become sweeter after harvesting in the way that some other fruits ripen.