Taxonomic Diversity of Lianas in Tropical Forests of Northern Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Lianas are important in forest ecosystem and strongly influence the forest dynamics and diversity. Lianas are common in the tropical moist deciduous and rain forests, which are competing with other forest trees. Little information is known on the habitat specialization in tropical lianas diversity and the root causes for variation among forests in liana species composition. A total of 170 liana species (≥ 1.5 cm girth at breast height) representing 109 genera and 43 families were reported in 5×5 m quadrate samples along with their climbing modes in the tropical forests of northern Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, India. A total of 210 grids were sampled in study area and reported that Convolvulaceae was the dominant family with 23 species followed by Papilionaceae, 22 species and Asclepiadaceae, 19 species and Ipomoea was the largest genera. Woody lianas were dominated by 128 species and these are classified into six climbing modes consisting in stem climbers (53.5%) that were the most predominant followed by stragglersunarmed (14.7%), stragglers armed and tendril climbers (13.5% each), root climbers (2.9%) and hook climbers (1.8%). The most dominant liana species in the northern Eastern Ghats were Acacia sinuata and Bauhinia vahlii. The results of this investigation suggests that better management and protection is an important for in situ conservation of liana diversity and involving local people is emphasized.