Distribution and diversity of climbing species in Papum Pare District of Arunachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

An investigation on the taxonomic diversity of climbing plants occurring in Papum Pare District, Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India was conducted. A total of 187 species distributed over 55 families and 117 genera were collected and identified from the various forest areas of the district. Apart from one gymnosperm and five pteridophytes, all species belong to the angiosperm group. Fabaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Convolvulaceae, Vitaceae, and Apocynaceae were found to be the most dominant. Piper, Dioscorea, Ipomoea, and Rubus were dominant at the genus level. The study also revealed that majority of the climbers adopted twining mechanisms (43.85%) to ascend their host. It was found that a majority of the species were distributed below 500m with a decrease in diversity with altitudinal increment. The diversity of species above 1,500m was very limited where only 23 species were reported. Habitat degradation because of rapid developmental activities with limitation of the supporting tree species was found to be a serious threat to climbing plants.