Herbaceous climbers (vines) represent a growth strategy in which the stem lacks most of its supporting function. This has led to the hypothesis that herbaceous climbers are structural parasites that invest less into stems than self-supporting plants. So far, the support for this idea has been ambiguous, as woody and herbaceous plants have been discussed jointly and evidence is often based on young plants in pot experiments. We collected in wild fully grown temperate herbaceous climbers and self-supporting herbs to examine the idea. We made a phylogenetically informed comparison of biomass allocation into stems and leaves of 16 climber species and 74 self-supporting herbs. Furthermore, we compared our results with those published for woody climbers to gain insight into different biomass allocation between herbaceous and woody growth forms. We found that herbaceous climbers and self-supporting herbs do not differ in their proportion of stem biomass to leaf biomass. Herbaceous climbers reach much higher in the canopy thanks to their climbing habit and in average more than seven times longer stems, but contrary to the expectation and unlike their woody counterparts, they do not save on investment into the stem. Herbaceous climbers and self-supporting herbs represent a study system which provides insight into biomass scaling with versus without supporting function where both stems as well as leaves are seasonal.

草本登山者（藤本植物）代表了一种生长策略，其中茎缺乏大部分支撑功能。这导致了这样的假说，即草本爬山者是结构性寄生虫，与自立植物相比，其对茎的投资较少。迄今为止，对这种想法的支持尚不明确，因为已经对木本植物和草本植物进行了共同讨论，而且在盆栽实验中的证据通常基于年轻植物。我们收集了野生的，完全生长的温带草本登山者和自给自足的草药，以研究这一想法。我们进行了系统发育的比较，比较了16种登山者和74种自养草本植物茎和叶中生物量的分配。此外，我们将我们的结果与为木本登山者发布的结果进行了比较，以了解草木和木本生长形式之间不同的生物量分配。我们发现草本登山者和自立草本植物的茎生物量与叶片生物量的比例没有差异。草本攀援者由于其攀援习性而在树冠中的高度更高，并且茎平均要长七倍以上，但与人们的预期相反，与木质木质攀登者不同，他们没有在茎上节省投资。草本登山者和自立式草药代表了一个研究系统，该系统提供了茎和叶均为季节性的具有或不具有支持功能的生物量结垢的见解。但与预期相反，与木质替代产品不同，它们无法节省茎杆上的投资。草本登山者和自立式草药代表了一个研究系统，该系统提供了茎和叶均为季节性的具有或不具有支持功能的生物量结垢的见解。但与预期相反，与木质替代产品不同，它们无法节省茎杆上的投资。草本登山者和自立式草药代表了一个研究系统，该系统提供了茎和叶均为季节性的具有或不具有支持功能的生物量结垢的见解。