Overview

This book brings out the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on the taxonomy, biodiversity, and ecology of climbers in India. Climbing is one of the principal plant growth habits that have long attracted the interests of ecologists and evolutionary biologists.

Importance of Climbing Plants

Climbing plants can add significantly to the species richness of many tropical forests ecosystems, yet they receive relatively lesser attention than trees in ecological studies. The difficulties in taxonomic assertions and lack of standard methodologies overlook climbers in plant inventories, resulting in the underrepresentation of climbers in regional floras.

Current Trends and Significance

There is a growing consensus about the increasing abundance of climbers and their multifaceted role in tropical forests worldwide. Therefore, it is essential to understand the taxonomic diversity and ecology of climbers at the regional scale to substantiate our efforts towards constructing a global climber database, which serves as a reference for fundamental research in climber ecology and evolution.

Intended Audience

This book is of interest to biodiversity researchers, taxonomists, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists. Field biologists, forest managers, and naturalists will also find this a useful read.