ABSTRACT
Climbers are highly represented in several vegetation types, corresponding to nearly 25% of tropical forest taxonomic diversity, but they are very poorly represented in floristic surveys. Studies of dense ombrophilous forests are rare and this work aims at contributing to the knowledge of climbers in this plant formation. The survey was undertaken in the Serra da Tiririca State Park, located between Niterói and Maricá municipalities, Rio de Janeiro state. The floristic survey listed 38 families, 107 genera, and 215 species. Leguminosae (with 29 species), Sapindaceae (23), Bignoniaceae (22), Malpighiaceae (19), and Apocynaceae (15) are the families better represented in number of species, accounting for 50.5 % of the total number of species reported. Woody, twining climbers predominated in the inventory. The high number of species found is possibly related to a mosaic of vegetation in different successional stages resulted from the process of use and abandonment of land.
Key words:
diversity; Atlantic rainforest; floristics