Lianas are one of the most iconic elements of tropical forests and their presence is a major feature of these biomes. Here we aim to describe and compare the wood of key genera of Fabaceae subfamily Papilionoideae comprising both trees and lianas. Thirty-eight species from the genera Machaerium, Dalbergia, Clitoria and Dioclea were sampled to establish the main quantitative features that differentiate lianas and trees, the so-called “Lianescent Vascular Syndrome”. Variance analyses were carried out to diagnose the anatomical differences between trees and lianas. Whereas most studies focused on qualitative features, this study focused on a statistical, quantitative comparison of lianas and trees of Papilionoideae, some not previously analysed anatomically. Our results show that lianas are quantitatively different from trees in having wider and more frequent vessels, a higher percentage of axial and radial parenchyma relative to fibres, greater ray height and width and longer fibres, statistically corroborating the “Lianescent Vascular Syndrome”.

中文翻译：

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“Lianescent Vascular Syndrome”在豆科蝶形亚科树木和藤本植物的比较研究中得到统计支持

藤本植物是热带森林最具标志性的元素之一，它们的存在是这些生物群落的主要特征。在这里，我们旨在描述和比较包括树木和藤本植物的豆科蝴蝶亚科关键属的木材。对来自 Machaerium、Dalbergia、Clitoria 和 Dioclea 属的 38 个物种进行采样，以确定区分藤本植物和树木的主要数量特征，即所谓的“Lianescent Vascular Syndrome”。进行方差分析以诊断树木和藤本植物之间的解剖学差异。尽管大多数研究都集中在定性特征上，但本研究侧重于对凤蝶科的藤本植物和树木进行统计、定量比较，其中一些以前没有进行解剖学分析。