A liana is a kind of plant. It is not a taxonomic grouping, but rather a description of the way the plant grows, and lianas may be found in many different plant families.
Lianas are woody climbers. They are especially characteristic of tropical moist deciduous forests and rainforests. These climbers often form bridges between the forest canopy and connect the entire forest and provide many arboreal animals with paths across the forest without them having to descend from the trees.
There are also temperate lianas, however, for example the members of the genus Clematis.
Liana is also the name of a C/C++-like object-oriented programming language. See Liana Programming Language.
See also