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 We used more than 100 published and unpublished sources spanning more than a century to compile the extensive list of climbers.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.

本研究首次基于最新APG IV分类系统，对印度境内攀援植物的分类多样性展开评估。研究团队依托跨越一个多世纪的100余篇已发表及未发表文献资料，汇编得到了涵盖范围广泛的攀援植物名录。本研究显示，印度攀援植物具有极高的系统发育多样性，共计2624个物种，演化辐射自585个属及104个种子植物（spermatophyte）科。本研究统计的攀援植物中约三分之二为木质藤本（liana）。与缠绕藤本（twiner）和卷须攀援植物（tendril climber）不同，铺散攀援植物（scrambler）均为木质植株。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规模。研究发现，仅依托生态调查或分类学记录获取的攀援植物多样性数据，会大幅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面临的若干核心限制因素，并提出了一套可复制的研究范式：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评估。本研究产生的基础数据，可广泛应用于攀援植物的生态学、分类学、系统发育学及进化生物学相关研究。