Taxonomic estimates of climbing plants in India: how many species are out there?

We present the first-ever attempt to estimate the taxonomic diversity of climbing plants in India, following the recent APG IV classification. We used more than 100 published and unpublished sources spanning more than a century to compile the extensive list of climbers. Our study revealed that the climbing plants in India are phylogenetically diverse, representing 2624 species radiated across 585 genera and 104 spermatophyte plant families. About two-thirds of the total climbers enumerated from the present study are lianas. Scramblers, in particular, are exclusively woody, unlike twiners and tendril climbers. The diversity of climbing mechanisms varied significantly across the 104 climber families. We also present the revised list of global climbing plant families, adding significantly to the existing dataset. We found that the climber diversity data collected exclusively from the ecological inventories or the taxonomic records underestimated the actual climber diversity by a significant margin. We discuss some of the key constraints in developing a climber database and recommend a replicable model, integrating ecology and taxonomy-based enumerations for the most precise estimate of climber diversity within a defined geographical area. The baseline data generated through our research will find applications in many ecological, taxonomic, phylogenetic, and evolutionary studies on climbers.

本研究首次尝试基于最新的APG IV分类系统，对印度境内攀援植物的分类多样性进行估算。研究团队整合了跨越一个多世纪的100余篇已发表及未发表的文献资料，编纂得到这份详尽的攀援植物名录。本研究揭示，印度攀援植物的系统发育多样性极为丰富，共计涵盖2624个物种，分布于585个属及104个种子植物科，类群间呈现显著的辐射演化特征。本研究纳入的全部攀援植物中约三分之二为木质藤本。尤为值得注意的是，铺散攀援植物仅具木质茎干，这与缠绕藤本及卷须攀援植物存在显著差异。104个攀援植物科的攀援机制多样性存在显著差异。本研究同时更新了全球攀援植物科名录，大幅扩充了现有数据集的内容。研究发现，仅通过生态调查名录或分类学记录获取的攀援植物多样性数据，会显著低估实际的攀援植物多样性水平。本研究探讨了构建攀援植物数据库过程中面临的若干核心限制因素，并提出了一套可复制的研究框架：整合生态学调查与分类学统计方法，以实现在特定地理区域内对攀援植物多样性的精准估算。本研究生成的基础数据，可广泛应用于攀援植物相关的生态学、分类学、系统发育学及进化生物学研究中。