The climbing habit has evolved in ~ 65% of angiosperm orders, with woody vines, or lianas, representing up to 25% of the species diversity of woody plants in neotropical forests. To resist the mechanical stress of twining and twisting, climbing plants often have intriguing anatomical features in the stems; this is termed the “lianescent vascular syndrome”. This set of characteristics allows for higher transport efficiency, as well as more flexible stems. One of the traits associated with the syndrome is vascular variants, which are alternations to the proportions and distribution of xylem and phloem in the stele. The genus the with highest diversity of vascular variants across plants is Serjania, in the Paullinieae tribe (Sapindaceae). This genus is exclusively composed of scandent shrubs or lianas and has around ~250 described species and a total of 6 vascular variants, one type being exclusive to the group. We currently lack an evolutionary and developmental understanding of Serjania anatomy, leading to questions about the homology of these traits and the evolutionary relationship of these vascular variants. The goal of this project is to analyze the evolution of development of the Serjania vascular variants. In this talk, I will present an updated time calibrated phylogeny for the Serjania using Ampelorhiza heteroxylon (~18.5 Mya) markers. Ancestral state reconstructions were performed using stochastic character mapping and revealed that each type of vascular variant appears to have evolved multiple times, except for the divided vascular cylinder, which is exclusive to the Eurycoccus section. These results demonstrate that most of the vascular variants of Serjania have a homoplasic history, while the divided cylinder remains homologous. This initial analysis serves as a foundation to evaluate the evolution of development of vascular variants across the tribe.