Premise of the study: Few studies have analyzed the physiological performance of different life stages and the expression of ontogenetic niche shifts in lianas. Here we analyzed the photosynthetic and morphological acclimation of seedlings of Stigmaphyllon lindenianum Combretum fruticosum and Bonamia trichantha to distinctive light conditions in a tropical dry forest and compared their response with the acclimation response of adult canopy lianas of the same species. We expected acclimation to occur faster through changes in leaf photochemistry relative to adapta