TANGLING WITH VINES

I'M GUESSING that vines, pound for pound, produce the highest ratio of leaf surface per support structure of any terrestrial plant.

- SCOTT BEUERLEIN

If I am actually right about this, they have given themselves a truly formidable competitive advantage over other plants.

Essentially, vines are a massive blob of biomass in search of any kind of support that will allow their lithesome, loathsome bodies to snatch up someone else's sunlight. They torment trees, gobble up gardens and even consume houses. Frank Lloyd Wright once famously said, "The physician can bury his mistakes. An architect can only cover them in vines."