Heard it Through the Grapevine

Its no rumour that the mass of vines growing on these trees is called Wild Grape. The plant produces a small, grape-like fruit. Although it is bitter to human taste, the fruit is readily eaten by more than one hundred species of songbirds and many common mammals. The seeds of the fruit pass unharmed through a bird's digestive tract and can be deposted a distance from the parent plant. This is how a vine germinates and spreads to a new area. Wild grape provides a dense nesting habitat and if you look carefully during the warm months of summer, you will see many kinds of birds darting in and out of the vines.

Little Known Fact: Grape vines will grow upward at every opportunity. Tenrils, which are modified leaf structures, enable the vines to cling to tree branches, thus supporting their bulk. Eventually, the vine can completely cover a tree shutting it off from sunlight. All green plants contain chlorophyll, a pigment that is responsible for their green colour. Carbon dioxide from the air, water from the soil and chlorophyll enable the plants to produce starches and sugars. These become the plant's food. When trees are shut off from sunlight, as with heavy grape vine infestation, the energy supply which fosters the making of starches and sugars is lost. Without food the tree dies.