Weaving Vinebark

by Artur Kornakov

Weaving Vinebark

Out of the Veiled Academy's biology and botany programs comes a hybrid species of vine intended to aid the construction industry. A natural solution that aims to increase the speed and strength in construction by allowing for smaller and thinner masonry walls that are then reinforced via fast-growing, strong and bark covered vines.

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An attempt at natural fortification

The thick gnarled bark of old and tough oak trees weaves its way gracefully up cobbled surfaces through long, thin, and tough vines that cling to the stone surfaces they grow upon. A combination of two species of plants allows for this hybrid to embody two seemingly opposing aspects in a single plant; hearty, strong, and tough bark, that grows in the format of light, winding, and wispy vines. From seedling to wood wall, a single Weaving Vinebark needs only one growing season in order to cover an area roughly 10 square meters, or more.
The problem was as it always is; an issue of efficiency, cost cutting, and simplification. Stonework walls were great and have worked fine for as long as humans have been stacking rocks on top of one-another, but what if it could be better? Masonry is lovely but has the annoying requirement of needing grout to glue all the blocks together. Then, if you want the wall to have any sort of lateral strength, you need it to be properly reinforced -- done usually through massive depth to the wall, or through metal reinforcement. The Veiled Academy's Botany department had the novel idea of growing a solution to both of these; use the vines to glue all the bricks together, and have them be strong enough to provide that lateral support as well.
A species of fast growing, hearty vine <A sub-species of Clematis Vines> was combined with a thin and tall oak species <Column Oaks>, with the result becoming what's known as Weaving Vinebark. It performed better than hoped, sometimes outgrowing the brick-layers, depending on the size of the bricks and the efficiency of the workers. A certain construction project once got so out of hand that the entire building was lost to the Vinebark, entirely engulfed in twisting and weaving wooden tendrils that grasped their host in a strangle-hold of natural fortification.