Coastal ecosystems in general and barrier islands in particular offer unique opportunities to observe ecological patterns and processes in spatially and temporally compressed settings. Harsh abiotic conditions and frequent disturbances limit the number of resident species and highly dynamic geomorphology may result in a space-for-time substitution as young shoreward communities give way to more developed later-successional interior communities. We investigated relationships between lianas and woody plants at barrier island sites in Virginia (Hog Island) and North Carolina (Duck FRF) to evaluate whether liana proliferation accelerates or delays succession from the dominant woody community Morella shrub thicket to the historic climax community maritime forest. Using aerial imagery Lidar data community surveys and edaphic sampling we found a correlative relationship between abiotic environmental variables and woody community structure and also between woody community distribution and liana success. Environmental variables demonstrated little predictive ability for liana distribution but there was evidence of an association between lianas and the prominent woody species at Hog Island though patchiness of the community and abiotic homogeneity prevented these associations from establishing at Duck FRF. We suggest that trends of woody plant expansion compounded with current and predicted global change effects on growth and success of lianas may contribute to a delay or prevention of further successional development at these and other temperate coastal sites.