ABSTRACT Most studies concerning climbing plants have focused on lianas, forest ecosystems, and tropical regions. Thus, the majority of existing information is not relevant to all climbing plants (lianas and vines) or all ecoregions of the world (forested and non-forested). We provide an update on floristic and distributional data available for climbing plants in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, which is located within subtropical and temperate zones and includes a variety of forest and non-forest vegetation types. A total of 448 climbing plant species were confirmed and documented by voucher specimens, revealing a diversity similar to that registered for trees in the state (533). The significant contribution of climbing species to the regional flora, the differences in floristic composition and species richness among the state’s eight vegetation types, and the high number of endangered species found in this extratropical region reveal the requirement to expand studies of climbing plants to include environments beyond tropical forests. Furthermore, the importance of herbaceous climbing species in subtropical and temperate floras demonstrates that they should be included in ecological studies of climbing plants, and that future analyses could detect unique or divergent patterns between herbaceous and woody climbers.

ABSTRACT Aquatic macrophytes are important components of freshwater ecosystems, of which Cyperaceae is the most diverse family. Many species of Cyperaceae form dense populations along lake margins of the southern coast of Brazil, but little is known about their sexual reproductive strategies. We characterized the reproductive life cycle of Eleocharis laeviglumis, an abundant emergent macrophyte of coastal wetlands in southern Brazil, by assessing its reproductive phenophases and estimating the number of its flowers and potentially viable fruits per inflorescence in a natural population. We also tested seed germinability and vigor for a period of four months during a single reproductive season. The species possesses dichogamous and protogynous spikelets with an average duration of 34 days (pre-anthesis, 1.7 d; anthesis, 6.9 d; fruit maturation, 22.3 d; fruit dispersion, 3.2 d). More than half of the flowers (62.2 %) developed into fruits, while only 5.5 % of the seeds germinated. Germinability and vigor decreased during the reproductive season. Some culms probably originate from asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction of clones. For restoration purposes, we suggest that E. laeviglumis should be propagated by sowing seeds collected at the beginning of the reproductive season, along with the transplantation of rhizomes.

Trepadeiras são importantes componentes florestais, contribuindo na diversidade e dinâmica de comunidades vegetais. Estudos focados em trepadeiras são escassos e para muitos tipos vegetacionais pouco se sabe sobre a composição de espécies de trepadeiras e seus atributos relevantes para dispersão e estabelecimento. O foco deste estudo é fornecer o primeiro inventário florístico de plantas trepadeiras em uma floresta de Araucária no Brasil, descrevendo as síndromes de dispersão e mecanismos de escalada das espécies e comparando esses atributos e a composição de espécies com outros sítios no Sul do Brasil. Foram encontrados 104 taxa pertencentes a 33 famílias, sendo Asteraceae (22 spp.) e Apocynaceae (14 spp.) as famílias mais ricas. Dentre os mecanismos de escalada, o tipo volúvel (50 spp.) é o mais comum, seguido por gavinhas (20 spp.) e apoiantes (12 spp.), enquanto em relação ès síndromes de dispersão as espécies anemocóricas (65 spp.) são as mais relevantes seguidas por endozoocóricas (28 spp.). Três novos registros de espécies foram encontrados para o Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, expandindo suas extensões de ocorrência para o Sul do Brasil. A comparação entre sítios evidenciou dois grupos nítidos em relação è composição de espécies e proporção de atributos, sítios em florestas sazonais e nas florestas com Araucária e Atlântica, porém não há diferença na frequência dos atributos entre os sítios. Há uma predominância de espécies volúveis em todos os sítios, entretanto a diferença relativa para espécies com gavinhas aumenta nos sítios de floresta com Araucária e Atlântica. As famílias Asteraceae e Apocynaceae foram as mais relevantes, contrastando com florestas sazonais no Sudeste do Brasil. Padrões interessantes podem ser encontrados com uma classificação mais detalhada dos mecanismos de escalada e os resultados encontrados neste estudo contribuem para aumentar o conhecimento sobre os atributos e a diversidade de trepadeiras no Sul do Brasil.

Climbing plants are remarkable components of forests, highly contributing for the diversity and dynamics of communities. Studies focusing on climbing plants are scarce and for many vegetation types little is known about climbing species composition and their traits relevant for dispersal and establishment. The focus of this study is to provide the first floristic inventory of climbing plants in an Araucaria forest of Brazil, describing the dispersal syndromes and climbing mechanisms of species and comparing these traits and species composition patterns with other study sites in Southern Brazil. We found 104 taxa belonging to 33 families, with Asteraceae (22 spp.) and Apocynaceae (14 spp.) being the richest families. Among climbing mechanisms, stem twiner (50 spp.) is the most common, followed by tendril (20 spp.) and scrambler (12 spp.), while in relation to the dispersal syndromes, anemochoric species (65 spp.) are the most relevant followed by endozoochoric (28 spp.). Three new species registries were found for Rio Grande do Sul State expanding their occurrence range towards South Brazil. The comparison of climbers’ survey sites showed two sharp groups in relation to species composition and traits proportion, Seasonal and Araucaria/Atlantic forest sites, but with no difference of traits frequency between sites. There is a predominance of stem twiners species in all sites, but the relative difference for tendril species increases in Araucaria and Atlantic forest sites. The Asteraceae and Apocynaceae families were the most relevant, contrasting to Seasonal forests of Southeast Brazil. Interesting patterns can be achieved with a more detailed classification of climbing mechanisms and the results found in this study contributes to enhance the knowledge on climbers’ traits and diversity in South Brazil.