Mike Pearce

Clingers, creepers and scramblers Mike Pearce

They had no money. Jack traded his cow for a handful of dried up beans. His mother screamed that he'd been cheated and they were ruined and took hold of the beans and threw them out of the window. The next morning his bedroom was filled with a pale green light as the sun shone through. Green hand like leaves pressed against his window. He went outside with his mother and saw that the beans had grown and their stalks were thick and spiraled around each other running up into the sky as if reaching up through the clouds to reach the sun. Jack climbed up the twining stems and found his fortune and after cutting down the beanstalk with an axe and killing the giant was able to live in luxury throughout his life. Some plants like beans grow quicker than others moving their modified stems, leaves and roots to find the best situation for their existence. The climbing, twining bean stalk led to Jack's success. Plants, especially climbers, have learnt how to be successful and satisfy their needs. Even Charles Darwin was fascinated by the diverse ways families of plants could move and attach themselves to their surroundings and wrote several essays on them. Families of climbers are found in Begoniaceae, Vitaceae, Leguminosae, Menispermaceae, Passi?oraceae, Calamoideae and Convolvulaceae. This book gives you some examples of how plants struggle to get to the top to maximise their potential and produce flowers and fruits. By adapting one or several of these methods through your life you too can be successful like these plants and reach the top of the beanstalk to gain wealth and happiness but always watch out for giants.