The premise of a ladder has been with humans for many thousands of years, but where did we get the idea from? To climb into the heavens is not a natural feat for a human being; we bipeds lack the strength and agility of our primate cousins and generally prefer to keep our feet firmly on the ground anyway. But, like our closest animal relatives, we still relied heavily on the fruits and flowers high above us in the canopy. And quite frankly, we needed to develop a way of getting at them.

No Ladders? Make Like a Frog!

Tree trunks have been nature’s ladders for millions of years. Insects, lizards, mammals, pretty much anything with a head for heights and a sense of balance will climb a tree trunk to get to the prize above. We humans have had to develop special techniques to be able to join in. Alongside the problems of a vertical climb with no side rail or steps, you have the extra discomfort of rough sharp bark pressing into your palms and feet (climbing trees tends to be done bare handed and bare footed, for better grip and feel). One method used by many forest tribes and communities across the tropics can be called the frog technique. Basically, you start with your legs flexed on either side of the tree with the soles of your feet planted firmly on the trunk, so that your legs look similar to the hind legs of a frog. You then place one hand up and behind the tree and the other hand at chest level, applying pressure from both sides which lifts you up whilst your legs push you forward. Quickly bring both of your feet up at the same time and return to the frog leg position, squeezing the trunk and maintaining your position.

An easier solution to climbing a tree trunk is to employ the services of a gentleman such as Axel Erlandson. This late 19th /early 20th century arboursculpturist was fascinated by trees and the potential that they to offer to art. In 1947, in Scott’s Valley California, he opened his famous ‘tree circus’. Advertised simply with a large sign saying ‘see the world’s strangest trees here’, Erlandson displayed his tree sculptures to the public for an admission fee of 30 cents. Amongst his sculptures, was a very intriguing ‘ladder tree’ created by training two Box Elder trees to fuse together across nine rungs which could all be climbed. The current location of the sculpture is sadly unknown, but the artwork is great testimony to a tree’s natural ability to create a ladder, even if a little help is needed to create the traditional ladder design.

Tarzan’s Ladder

If tree trunks just seem too tough to try out, how about a jungle vine? Disney’s movie Tarzan has placed the idea firmly in many a child’s brain that humans can use such plants to swing through the jungle, getting from A to B whilst having huge amounts of fun along the way, but just how synonymous is the jungle vine with the original rope ladder? To be honest, not very; you would be better of cutting into a liana (vine) with a machete as you can often find drinking water held within the hollow stem. True jungle vines, or lianas, are formed of long stemmed woody vines that grow from the ground rather than hang from the canopy. Typical of many tropical and deciduous forests, these plants exploit trees as forms of vertical support, using their giant cousins to climb up through the canopy and reach the life giving light from the sun. Lianas are often fixed within the canopy boughs as well as at the ground, and so rather than forming a free swinging transport system through the jungle, they form stationary structures that can be likened to complex bridges and frameworks between the trees. Whilst not a rope ladder, they are most certainly a ladder of sorts: You could even compare them to a scaffolding frame. Either way, they are an integral part of the forest, providing an impressive method of locomotion through the jungle for both residents and visitors alike.

Whilst there is little direct correlation, rope ladders are thought to have been based on this type of plant structure. Rope is formed by binding fibres into a continuous strand through twisting or braiding and many lianas form these twisted structures which give them extra rigidity. The first ladders made from plant material date back to the Mesolithic period, where cave paintings 10,000 years old depict a long ladder that was probably made from twisting long strands of dried grass. The image shows two humans, using this ladder to reach the hive of the honey bee and retrieving the sweet treat within. Such art work shows us just how far back into our history that we humans have been using ladders and how our relationship with this tool is closely entwined with the natural world.

Today, rope ladders have gone far beyond a simple thick cord with knots tied into in for foot holds. Industrial rope ladders are often used as fire escapes particularly in parts of the United States and Australia where forest fires are a danger to many communities. These models normally have hard wood rungs between two rope hand rails, providing extra support for the user but the flexibility to scale any vertical structure.

Ladders of Nature

Aside from the physical examples that we would all recognise as a form of ladder, there are other references to ladders in nature. The Great Chain of Being, is a method of biological classification first developed by the great philosophers of Ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle. Its Latin title, Scala Natura, literally translates to ladder or stair way of nature. God is at the top of this strict hierarchy, followed by demons and angels, and four different classes of human according to their status. Kings, are higher up the ladder than a normal man, in The Great Chain of Being. Animals are also split into wild and domesticated; a domesticated animal is a lesser beast than one who is wild and free, and finally plants and minerals at the bottom. Aristotle performed an amazing feat of science by describing this relationship between living things, the first attempt at Charles Darwin’s now familiar tree of life. It formed the basis of Carl Linnaeus’s systema naturae, where the fundamental kingdoms of the natural world, plants, animals and minerals, were invented and described. You can read more about it in our previous blog post, Aristotle’s ladder of nature – The Scala Naturae, which was put up on the 22nd of April. If you are interested in nature and/or philosophy I recommend you check it out.

Natural ladders in all their forms bring us closer to the history of our planet, and of ourselves. They teach us about the diversity of form, the diversity of thought, and illustrate the industriousness of our ancestors and our primate cousins. Natural ladders have helped us survive by providing access to food, water and shelter. They have also stretched our minds, whether it was because a tribe needed to invent a method of traversing a cliff face, or a Victorian naturalist took his first tentative steps to discover the truth about the order of the biological world. Natural ladders form part of our thinking, showing just how important ladders are to how we humans live our lives.