Towards a Standardization of Terminology of the Climbing Habit in Plants

In science, standardization of terminology is crucial to make information accessible and allow proper comparison of studies' results. Climbing plants and the climbing habit have been described in numerous ways, frequently with imprecise and dubious terms. We propose a standardization of terms regarding the climbing habit, with special attention to climbing mechanisms. We abide by previous suggestions that the terms 'primary' and 'secondary' hemiepiphyte be substituted by 'hemiepiphyte' and 'nomadic climber' respectively, thus emphasizing the relationship of the latter to the climbing habit. We also suggest that 'climbing plant' or 'climber' be used to describe plants displaying the climbing habit, and 'liana' and 'vine' be left for describing woody and herbaceous climbers respectively. As for climbing mechanisms, we propose an eight-category classification comprised of two major categories: passive climbing, containing scrambling, hooks or grapnels, and adhesive roots; and active climbing, containing twining, tendrils, prehensile branches, twining petioles, and twining inflorescences. Keywords climbing plants * lianas * vines * climbing mechanisms * standardization * terminology Portuguese Na ciencia, a padronizacao de terminologia e crucial para tomar informacoes acessiveis e possibilitar a comparacao adequada dos resultados de estudos. Trepadeiras e o habito trepador vem sendo descritos de diversas maneiras, frequentemente com termos imprecisos e dubios. Nos propomos urna padronizacao da terminologia relativa ao habito trepador, corn atencao especial aos mecanismos de escalada. Nos acatamos sugestoes anteriores de que os termos 'hemiepifita primaria' e 'secundaria' sejam substituidos por 'hemiepifita' e 'trepadeira nomade' respectivamente, enfatizando assim a relacao desta ultima com o habito trepador. Nos tambem sugerimos que 'trepadeira' seja utilizado para descrever plantas apresentando o habito trepador, e 'liana' e 'trepadeira herbacea' sejam utilizados somente para descrever trepadeiras lenhosas e herbaceas respectivamente. Quanto aos mecanismos de escalada, nos propomos urna classificacao com oito categorias compreendidas em duas grandes categorias: trepadeiras passivas, contendo os mecanismos apoiante, ganchos e raizes grampiformes; e trepadeiras ativas, contendo os mecanismos voluvel, gavinhas, ramos preensores, peciolos voluveis e inflorescencias voluveis. Palavras-chave trepadeiras * lianas * mecanismos de escalada * padronizacao * terminologia
Introduction In an ideal scenario of any biological study, the ternis of scientific language and the concepts they express should be clear and precise to avoid ambiguities, which are a [...]