Climbers, such as lianas and vines, are important constituents of tropical forests and perhaps the single most important physiognomic characteristic differentiating tropical from temperate forests, occurring on nearly 50 per cent of forest trees in Central and South America. Despite their widespread nutritional and medicinal use, lianas remain poorly understood ecologically. An invaluable addition to our understanding of tropical forests, the book offers new information as well as information brought together from dispersed publications and unpublished lists and reports. In these times of habitat fragmentation and species loss, this data is a significant contribution to the biological research that is thriving in Central America, especially Costa Rica. Tendrillate Climbers fills a major gap in the botanical literature. Its high level of scholarship and comprehensive coverage will astonish the tropical botanists, forestry scientists, ecologists, biologists, and horticulturalists who will want it as a reference for their continued work on this neglected group of plants.