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Hop. Flowering male plant

 

We have not many climbers or lianas to boast about, they are more characteristic for the tropics, so thus a little exotic for us.

 

The hop climbs along trees up to a height of six metres, occasionally, but seldom, higher. The partly woody stem only winds in a clockwise direction and fastens with hooked spines on the stems, leaf stalks and also on the flowerhead stalks.
 

Hops have two kinds of flowers: male and female, quite different from each other. They grow on different individuals; such plants are dioeceous or separately sexed. The male flowerheads are long and loosely set with flowers, the female flowerheads are small to start with but when ripe they lengthen to four centimetres, and remind of a sparse spruce cone.