Floristic diversity of climbing plants in tropical forests of Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Odisha, India

Climbers influence the diversity and composition of forest ecosystem immensely. We have investigated the floristic composition of climbing plants in tropical forests of Similipal Biosphere Reserve (SBR), Odisha, India. A total of 120 climber plant species belonging to 74 genera and 33 families were documented in all forests. Among families, the most speciose families were Fabaceae (25 species) and Convolvulaceae (22 species) followed by Cucurbitaceae (11 species), Vitaceae (8 species), Dioscoreaceae (7 species) etc. Similarly, dominant genera were Ipomoea possessing the highest number of species i.e., 9 species followed by Dioscorea (7 species), Vigna (6 species) and Cissus (4 species) etc. There was a remarkable difference noted in the structure and climbing mechanism of different climbers. The climbing plants diversity of SBR not only contributing to the overall forest biodiversity significantly but also maintain the ecological balance of the whole ecosystem. Climbers are the major resource of economic value in and around the biosphere reserve and thus their use and sustainable management must be given principal attention.