Composition of lianas and vines in the Colombian Chocó

Abstract

In order to determine the distribution patterns of lianas and vines in the Colombian Chocó biogeographic, we constructed a data base of presence of species of lianas and vines reported to December 2012, from digital databases, records scientific literature and direct inspection of herbarium specimens considering ecosystem types (environments), from which, the composition and richness to any environment was determined. To evaluate the affinity in terms of family composition between types of environments, hierarchical clustering analysis, "Cluster" was developed using the Jaccard similarity coefficient. 41 families, 198 genera distributed in 700 species of lianas and vines for Chocó were recorded. The families better represented as for number of species and kinds were Bignoniaceae (75/34), Fabaceae (74/19), Sapindaceae (59/4) and Rubiaceae (40/14). There is a similarity of 72% in the composition of lianas and vines on the types of Colombian Chocó Biogeographic environment.