The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Short Communication Glimpse of climber diversity in Saharanpur District, Uttar Pradesh, India Lalita Saini, Archasvi Tyagi, Inam Mohammad & Vijai Malik 26 April 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 5 | Pages: 18390–18397 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5029.13.5.18390-18397 For Focus, Scope, Aims, and Policies, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/aims_scope For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/policies_various For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 April 2021 | 13(5): 18390–18397 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5029.13.5.18390-18397 #5029 | Received 19 February 2019 | Final received 23 January 2021 | Finally accepted 27 March 2021 SHORT COMMUNICATION Glimpse of climber diversity in Saharanpur District, Utar Pradesh, India Lalita Saini 1 , Archasvi Tyagi 2 , Inam Mohammad 3 & Vijai Malik 4 1,2,4 Department of Botany, CCS University, Meerut, Utar Pradesh 250001, India. 3 DAV University, Sarmastpur, Jalandhar, Panjab 144012, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected] 4 [email protected] (corresponding author) Abstract: The present paper focuses on the herbaceous and woody these may be root climbers, scramblers, tendril climbers, climbers of Saharanpur District. A total of 66 species of herbaceous and twiners. Climbers mostly occur in woody plant climbers, 33 species of woody climbers, 15 species of climbing shrubs, and two species of parasitc climbers belonging 27 diferent families ecosystem, although diversity is found in subtropical and have been recorded. Climbers belonging to the families such as tropical forests (Richards 1952; Schimper 1903; Bongers Convolvulaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae, and Apocynaceae were found to be dominant in this region. This study also records the et al. 2005). Tropical rain forest has a high diversity of occurrence of 14 species of threatened climbers. climbers up to 30% of vegetaton (Schnitzer & Bongers 2002). Climbing plant species are more abundantly Keywords: Apocynaceae, Convolvulaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae, threatened. associated to tropical forest than temperate forest (Putz 1984; Richard 1996). Climber is defned as plant species that require mechanical support for its growth (Putz & Windsor A climber starts its life on the forest foor and 1987). It includes herbaceous and woody lianas (Gentry spends almost one-fourth of its life on forest surface. 1991). According to an estmate, climbers are one half Afer this phase the adhering, anchoring, and leaning of vascular plant species. Hippocrataeceae, Vitaceae, starts on other plants to achieve immense stature and Smilacaceae families have lianas or vines (Putz (Jongkind & Hawthorne 2005). Families such as 1984; Gentry 1991). A climber foristcally plays an Cucurbitaceae, Convolvulaceae, and Dioscoreaceae are important role in tropical forest and considered to be a considered to be climber rich. Amongst the climber-rich structural component that afects the physiognomy of families, Apocynaceae, Rubiaceae, Celastraceae, and the forest (Gentry 1991). A climber plant species plays Leguminosae have more than 50 species (Gentry 1991; a vital role in forest ecosystem as it provides habitat Schnitzer & Bongers 2002). Diversity is also found in the and food for animals (Hladik 1978; Emmons & Gentry climbing mechanism in the form of branch twiners, stem 1983; Gentry 1991; Gelat & Padroni 1994). Climbers twiners, tendril climbers, root adhesive climbers, hook are almost neglected in all foristc studies but this group climbers, and scramblers (Bongers et al. 2005; Jongking represents one of the major part of plant collectons & Hawthorne 2005). Climbers are rooted plants in the (Gentry 1991). A review of the literature reveals that ground but necessitate hold up for their growth and several workers did comprehensive work on climbers Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publicaton: 26 April 2021 (online & print) Citaton: Saini, L., A. Tyagi, I. Mohammad & V. Malik (2021). Glimpse of climber diversity in Saharanpur District, Utar Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(5): 18390–18397. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5029.13.5.18390-18397 Copyright: © Saini et al. 2021. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to Dr. Rup Narayan, Head, Department of Botany, CCS University, Meerut, for encouragement. 18390 Climber diversity in Saharanpur District, Utar Pradesh Saini et al. J TT (1906), Kanjilal (1928), Maheshwari (1963), and Delta sofware. The herbarium sheets are preserved in the Department of Botany, C.C.S. University, and Meerut. Result and Discussion During feld surveys, the authors collected many plant and recorded 116 species (98 natve and 18 non-natve) of climbers, of which 66 were herbaceous climbers, 33 woody climbers or lianas and 15 climbing shrubs, and two parasite climbers (Images 1–22). We also observed diversity in the nature of climbing organs. It was reported that out of 116 climber species 70 are twiners, 24 are tendril climbers, 15 are climbing shrubs, four are root climbers and three are hook climbers. Threatened climbers of Saharanpur District Abrus precatorius, Aspidopterys cordata, Asparagus racemosus, Cryptostegia grandifora, Brachypterum scandens, Dioscorea alata, D. bulbifera, Ipomoea dichroa, Mucuna pruriens, Operculina terpethum, Paederia foetda, Pueraria tuberosa, Trichosanthes cucumerina, and Vincetoxicum indicum are some of the threatened climbers found in Saharanpur District. These fndings are in accordance to the work done by previous Figure 1. Study area explorers (Malik 2016; Barik et al. 2018). References and related taxa (DeWalt et al. 2000; Muthuramkumar & Parthasarathy 2001; Pérez-Salicrup et al. 2001; Reddy & Barik, S.K., O.N. Tiwari, D. Adhikari, P.P. Singh, R. Tiwary & S. Barua Parthasarathy 2003; Kouamé et al. 2004; Parthasarathy (2018). Geographic distributon patern of threatened plants of India and steps taken for their Conservaton Current Science 3: 114. et al. 2004; DeWalt et al. 2006; Mukherjee 2006; Prasad htps://doi.org/10.18520/cs/v114/i03/470-503 et al. 2009; Ghosh & Pandey 2014). During the present Bongers, F., M.P. Parren & D. Traoré (2005). Forest climbing study, an atempt was made to enumerate and list all plants of West Africa: Diversity, Ecology and Management. CABI Publishing Wallingford UK, 273pp. htps://doi. natve, exotc, and threatened climbers of Saharanpur org/10.1079/9780851999142.0000 forest division of Utar Pradesh, India. During felds Brandis, D. (1824–1906). Indian Tress: an account of trees, shrubs, surveys and foristc study, the authors collected many woody climbers, bamboos and palms indigenous or commonly cultvated in the Britsh Indian Empire. A constable, London, 776pp. plant species and recorded 116 climbers (Table 1). DeWalt, S.J., K. Ickes, R. Nilus, K.E. Harms & D.F. Burslem (2006). Liana habitat associatons and community structure in a Bornean Material and Methods lowland tropical forest. Plant Ecology 186(2):203–216. htps://doi. org/10.1007/s11258-006-9123-6 0 0 Saharanpur lies between 29 34’45”–30 21’30”N & Dewalt, S.J., S.A. Schnitzer & J.S. Denslow (2000). Density and 7709’46”–78014’45”E with the average 269m elevaton diversity of lianas along a chronosequence in a central Panamanian and covers 3,689km2 area. Most part of the Saharanpur lowland forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 16(1): 1–19. Duthie, J.F. (1903–1929). Flora of the Upper Gangetc Plain and of the District is plain except the northern fronter which Adjacent Siwalik and Sub-Himalayan Tract. Calcuta, India. includes Shivalik Hills. While inventorying the fora Emmons, L.H. & A.H. Gentry (1983). Tropical forest structure and of Saharanpur, the authors conducted several feld the distributon of gliding and prehensile-tailed vertebrates. The American Naturalist 121(4): 513–524. trips in diferent seasons and collected hundreds of Galet, M. & F. Pedroni (1994). Seasonal diet of capuchin monkeys plant species. During the feld survey many climber (Cebus apella) in a semi deciduous forest in south-east Brazil.