Climbing plants: life form and clasification

Abstract

A life form is a morpho-ecological category with structural (adaptive) correlate, applied to various species of plants of different taxonomic groups. Different species, different individuals or even the same individual throughout life may have different life forms. The climbing life form includes plants that are not kept upright by themselves, climb to a support and grow in height. Several classifications have been proposed of this life form, mostly based on their climbing mechanisms. However, many species develop more than one climbing mechanism, so their lassification is debatable. From the analysis of different schemes proposed, we consider the most appropriate is to distinguish two basic groups: scandent plants (presence of specialized climbing mechanisms: tendrils, petioles prehensile, voluble stems, adhesive roots) and leaning plants (absence of those mechanisms). Woody stemmed scandent plants are called lianas, while the herbaceous stemmed are called enredaderas. This scheme aims to limit the meaning of these terms, which are often confused in the literature. This contribution is based on studies in the Río de La Plata region, from where most of the examples.

Keywords: life forms, climbing plants, lianas, enredaderas, leaning plants, climbing mechanisms