Intemational Journal of Botany 4 (2): 186-195, 2008 ISSN 1811-9700 © 2008 Asian Network for Seientifie Information Diversity and Distribution of Climbing Plants in a Semi-Deciduous Rain Forest, KNUST Botanic Garden, Ghana Patrick Addo-Fordjour, Alexander Kofi Anning, Emmanuel Amaniampong Atakora and Patricia Serwaa Agyei Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana Abstract: The diversity and distribution of climbing plants were investigated in two T-ba plols in the KNUST botanic garden, Each plot was divided into sixteen 2525 m quadkats and all trees and shrubs = 10 em dbh were ‘enumerated in each quadkat, All vines on tee species were identified and counted while all Hanas = 1.5 om were cerumerated. The mechanisms of climbing of the climbers were stuced. A total of 951 climbing plants belonging {082 species, 49 genera and 26 families were identified. These consisted of 72 liana and 10 vine species. Sevest lnundred and sixteen trees belonging to 77 species and 27 families hosted the climbers. Climbing plants made up of about 43% of all the species (except herbs) identified. Lianas alone constituted about 38% of the woody species, The commonest and most dominant species were Strophantus barteri Franch., Smilax species and Grifonia simplicifolia (Vabl ox DC.) Baillon. Most ofthe climber species showed clumped distribution. Stem ‘winning was the most predominant climbing mechanism. The number of climbers using the different climbing mechanisms differed significantly (p<0.001), Host species, habitat and their interaction had significant (p-0.001) cffects on climber density. Key words: Diversity, climbers, KNUST, semi-deciduous INTRODUCTION Climbers are plants that germinate on the floor of the forest and grow, at least for part of thei life, or when the forest closes up around them, by winding around, leaning on, of anchoring or adhering to other plants Jongkind and Hawthome, 2005) to attain great stature (Swaine et af, 2005), ‘They occur in many plant families with only a fow families such as Dioscoreaceae, Cucurbitacese and Conv olvulaceae consisting completely of climbing plants In Ghana, out of the 125 families of vascular plants in the forest flora, 66 have climbing species (Swaine etal, 2005), ‘The most species rich climber families are Rubiaceae, Leguminosae, Celestracese and Apoeynaceae, with each family containing more than 50 climber species (Gentry, 1991, Schnitzer and Bongers, 2002), Climbing plants also show great diversity in their climbing mechanisms (Bongers ef al, 2005; Jongkind and Hawthomne, 2005), ‘These include stem twiners, branch twiners, ovadhesive climbers, temiril climbers, seramblers and hook/thom climbers. Climbers occur in all woody eooystems of the world although a high abundance is considered to be 1 forest characteristic of tropical andl subtropical forests (Bongers et al, 2005), Specifically, in tropical rain forest, they comprise about 25-30% of species diversity (Schnitzer and Bongers, 2002). They occur in between crowns and many grow on several canopies (Caball 1998), In most topical forests many more small climbers and relatively few large ones are present at forest edges and in forest fragments compared to forest interiors and large sized forests (Sehmitzer and Bongers, 2002). Tendtil climbers are more suitable to gaps and forest edges, where smaller diameter supports are more common, than in forest interiors (Putz and Holbrook, 1991). They are therefore more randomly distributed in young forests during whieh time small diameter supports are available, ‘Stem and branch twiners on the other hand, are more commonly evenly distributed in later successional forests (Dewalt e¢ al, 2000), The spatial distribution pattem of plants affeets future processes, both of plants themselves and of a range of other organisms with which they interact (Parren, 2003). Most climbing plants us a group or at a species level show clump distribution at different levels, Few studies on climbers such as Kokou ef al. (2002) have distinguished three categories of climbing plants namely woody climbing plants (lianas), herbaceous Corresponding Author: Petrick Addo-Fordjour, Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), 186 sumasi, GhanaInt. J. Bot, 4 (2): 186-195, 2008 climbing plants (vines) and climbing shrubs. However, ‘most authors (@g, Caballé, 1998, Muoghaly and Okeesan, 2005) consider the climbing shrubs as lianas and therefore recognize lianas and vines as the two main groups of climbers Lianas may reach the erovins of toos in the top strata and be exposed to sunlight when they reach ‘maturity but ines are unable to reach anywhere nea the ‘canopy of tmatue forest Jongkind and Hawthome, 2005). Climbers play important ecological roles inthe forest scoxystem dynamics and functioning (Nabe-Nielsen, 2001; Bongers eta, 2002), They contribute substantially to canopy closure after tree fall and help stabilize the microclimate underneath (Schnitzer and Bongers, 2002) Lianas in particular add considerably to forest plant diversity and provide Valuable habitat and connections ‘among twee canopies that enable arboreal animals to traverse the tee tops (Schnitzer and Carson, 2001). The contribution of lianas to species richness of tropical forests can be impressively as high as 31% (Hall and Swaine, 1981), While lias contribute substantially to the forest structure, the contribution of vines is only negligible due to the small numberof species composing, it Quoghaly and Okeesan, 2005). Climbers form an essential part of the diet of many ‘animals in times of searcity of flowers and fruits (Patz and Windsor, 1987). This i ertieal foe the survival fof tress as many’ of these animals are essential for dispersal of tees seeds (Guariguata and Pinard, 1998), including the majority of commercially interesting species Gansenand Zuidema, 2001), In spite of the numerous roles climbers play in ecosystems, litle attention has been given to them; they are scantly treated in literature (Bongers er al, 2005). Almost all work on forest plant communities have over relied heavily on trees (Tumer et af, 1996) probably due to the commercial value ‘of many trees among other reasons (Bongers et al, 2005), For instance, unlike trees and shrubs which have received much attention in the KNUST Botanic Gardon Anning ef al. unpublished data) climbers have not been much studied. Only a few studies on climber species have been carried out in Ghana (¢g., Hall and Swaine, 1981; Swaine et al,, 2005). Furthermore, most of these studies are not exclusively on climbers as they involve general botanical surveys, leading to scanty information on climbers. Accordingly, climbing plant diversity and distribution in Ghana is still poorly known. The main objective of the present study was to determine the diversity and distribution of elimbing plants in the KNUST Botanic Garden as a way of contributing to the understanding of the general floristic composition and structure of the garden, MATERIALS AND METHODS Study area: The study took plage in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Botanic Garden, Kumasi, Ghana (Fig. 1) (latitude 6°35 N-6°40 N and longitude 1°30 W.1°35 W). The 129 he garden comprises of a semi-deciduous rain forest. It was éstablished in 1960 and since then has played very useful roles in education, research and recreation, Wi f J me ? Fig. 1: Map of a section of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) showing the Botanic ‘garden with the study sites (disturbed and undisturbed) 197Int. J. Bot, 4 (2): 186-193, 2008 Some measures have been instituted to prevent people from encroaching on the garden. These include fencing of the whole garden and the provision of security men who guard the garden. In spite of this, some people still manage to sneak in and conduct illegal activities such as felling of trees for firewood, cutting of bamboo and hunting for animals in some parts of the garden. These areas together with the part of the garden that has been developed for recreational activities have thus experienced minimal form of human disturbance. The rest of the garden which forms the major part has remained ‘undisturbed for many years. ‘The garden is endowed with diveree species including topical palms, timber species and medicinal plant species. The vegetation is made up of about 68% native species and 32% exotie species (Anning ef al., Unpublished data). Detailed description of the floristic composition and structure of the KNUST Botanic garden is found in Amiing er af. (unpublished data), but with scanty information on climbers, ‘The semi-deciduous vegetation receives relatively high amount of annua! rainfall, approximately 731 mm per ‘year, The average annual temperature ranges fom 21,55 to 32.12°C. The average annual humidity in the area is 599.2% (The KNUST meteorological department, 2006) Sampling: Quantitative inventory of climbers was carried cout between August 2006 and January 2007, in two 1a plots; one in the disturbed area and the other in the undisturbed area. Each plot was further divided into sixteen 25*25 m subplots (quadeats). ‘The plots were demarcated with the aid of a field compass and flagued pegs. Within each subplot all tree species 210 em diameter at breast height (dbh) were identified. All vines com a tree species were identified and courted, while all lianas 21.5 em dbl wore enumerated. The diameter at breast eight of trees and lianas was measured at 1:3 m from ther rooting base, Zach identified tee, vine, or liana was tagged to prevent double enumeration, Shrubs (210 em ab were also identitied in the stavey s0 as to be able to determine the relative composition of limas among the woody species, All stems that were rooted at the same place were counted as an individual (Nabe-Nielsen, 2001). Allshoots connected by a single runner were reaarded at an individual. The frequency of the climbers was quantified by recording the presence or absence of the species inthe quadrats (Green eta, 1995) and fining the average. The climbing mechanisms of the climber species were determined based on observations on the field and with reference to checklist by Tongkind (2005). Identification of plants was carried out with the help of| plant taxonomists and with reference to relevant local 188 manuals and Floras (Hawthome, 190; Arbonnier, 2004; Poorter ¢f al, 2004), Voucher specimens were deposited atthe KNUST and Forestry Department herbaria, Kumasi. The taxonomy followed Hutchinson an Dalziel (1954-72), Analysis of data: The diameter at breast height (dbh) measured for the trees and lianas were used to determine the basal area, The basal area of the lianas was used as component part ofthe determination of importance value ‘The Importance Value (TV) of each species was calculated fs the sum of the species relative density, relative frequency and relative dominance (Kiruki and Njung’e, 20077 Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the data to determine the effects of host species, habitat and the interaction between them on climber density Furthermore, climber densities among the different categories of climbing meshanisms were compared using, analysis of variance, Analysis of variance was also performed to determine significant differences between liana densities in the various diameter classes. The ninth edition of the GENSTAT software was used, All analyses were conducted at a significance level of S Spatial distribution pattems of the climbers. were ddofermined using the Morisita index of dispersion (Morista, 1959). The diversity of climbers in the study sites were quantified using the Shannon-Wiener index and the Shannon evenness. RESULTS: Diversity of climbing plants: A total of 951 individuals of climbing plants were identified in the study (Table 1), ‘These belong to 82 species, 49 genera and 26 families, The climber species were made up of 72 liana (woody) species and 10 vine (non-woody) species. Seventy two of the species were identified to the species level, 17 were ‘identified to the genus level and 3 were identified to the family level. The density of climbers was 475.5 individuals per hectare while species richness was 41 per hectare. The ‘Shannon-Wiener index forthe disturbed site was 3.6 while the undisturbed site recorded an index value of 38. The Shannon-Wiener evenness for the disturbed and undisturbed sites were 0.95 and 0.91, respectively Strophantus Barteri was the most aburelant species making up about 11.78% of all the climber stems and 10.41% of the total basal area of the lianas. The ten most abundant species accounted for 41% of all the individual climbers identified in the study (Table 1). Strophantus barteri also had the highest important value index followed by Smilax species and Griffonia simplicifalia Table 1),