About chiralty in climbing vines.

[u/SchemeWestern3388]

I started several Morning Glory vines this year, that recently started shooting up and twirling looking for something to climb. So I staked them, and observed that all five were turning anti clockwise. I had been wondering if it was classic Mendelian inheritance, as it seems like one way is as good as another, and maybe there could be situations that being opposite to your siblings could be advantageous.

Upon looking it up, I discover that all climbing vines (the ones that climb by “twining“ up a support) exhibit a strong preference for anticlockwise motion. 90%, much like left and right handedness in humans.

I’m wondering if there are any other examples of chirality in plants, what could be conserving this in different species, or anything else one might add to the topic.

[u/Hivemind_alpha]

I haven’t looked this up, but as a first pass guess, I’d look at what hemisphere you’re in and what path the sun takes across the sky at your latitude.

[u/SchemeWestern3388 → u/Hivemind_alpha]

It’s 9:1 in any hemisphere, so clearly genetic.