Climbing plants, with about 10,265 species in the Neotropics, contribute about 10% of the tracheophyte flora in this region. In spite of their great contribution to biodiversity and to ecological processes of the world, climbing plants have not been adequately studied and often are seen as pests that diminish the value of timber species.
Although there has been some progress in the study of climbing plants during the last decades, most of these publications deal with their ecology, structure, or physiology. Still, very few publications facilitate the identification of this fascinating group of plants.
The present website is concurrent with the Project: Guide to the genera of lianas and climbing plants of the Neotropics, aimed to facilitate the identification of climbers in this vast region. Familiar treatments contributed by our group of plant specialist are here made available prior to their publication in a book form. In this guide, we emphasize the use of vegetative characters for the identification of Family and genera.
The geographical scope of this project follows the classical definition of Neotropical in considering only the genera found in the region between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn (23.5° N & S of the equator).
How to cite this site: "Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. et al. (2015 onwards). Lianas and climbing plants of the Neotropics." https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/botany/research/lianas-and-climbing-plants-neotropics
