Question

Is a bottle gourd plant a climber or a creeper?

Answer 1

Hint: Bottle gourd is a plant that belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family commonly known as the Cucumber family. It is a green plant that is fast growing. It is also used as a food source.

Complete answer:
Bottle gourd plants have weak stems thus they are unable to grow upright on their own. But the plant has certain structures known as tendrils. The tendrils are slender curly structures that help in anchoring the plant to rigid supports. And helps it to climb and thereby grow in length. Thus the bottle gourd plant is a climber. It requires any kind of rigid support to grow in length. Thus it climbs on other plants with a strong stem or on trees or also on rods and sticks. Examples of other climbers are Beans, grapevine, other gourds, money plants etc.

On the other hand, creepers grow by spreading on the ground and are unable to climb up vertically. The weak stems present in both climbers and creepers are known as Prostate stems. Examples of creepers are Clove, Pumpkin, Watermelon, etc.

Additional Information: Tendrils are appendages formed from a stem or a leaf that helps plants with weak stems such as climbers to climb on a rigid supporting structure. Tendrils also act as sensory organs while they respond to light and touch helping them to curl around support.

Note: The basic differences between climbers and creepers are:

CLIMBERS	CREEPERS
Climbers require rigid support to carry their weight.	Creepers grow by spreading on the ground
Tendrils present	Tendrils absent