Epiphytes or Air Plants

Epiphytes or Air Plants

An epiphyte is a plant that usually grows on another plant (usually a tree) non-parasitically. Sometimes epiphytes grow on other object. In south Florida we see ball moss growing on telephone wires. Epiphytes get their moisture and nutrients from the air and rain. With that said they sometimes obtain moisture & nutrients from debris accumulating around it.

Some of the more common epiphytes are Spanish moss, orchids, bromeliads and lichens.

Spanish moss one of the most common epiphytes

Epiphytic plants like Spanish moss attached to their hosts high in the canopy. That gives them an advantage over plants restricted to the ground where there is less light and they can become and easy meal for herbivores.

Orchids are epiphytes also

Epiphytes like this orchid have roots that are used as attach mechanisms to whatever they grow on.

Epiphyte orchid bloom

Epiphytes have some of the most beautiful blooms of any plant.

Bromeliads are epiphytes

Bromeliads like orchids have beautiful flowers. This is a wild bromeliad we saw in the Everglades.

It amazes me how these epiphytes do not need soil to flourish.

Staghorn Fern is another epiphyte

Staghorn ferns are another epiphyte that we see in south Florida. They are generally featured hanging from large trees by substantial chains.

Epiphytic ball moss

Ball moss is another epiphyte that is common is Central and South Florida.

I do not recall seeing ball moss north of Orlando but I suspect there are scattered pockets of it a bit north of Orlando.

Some ferns are epiphytes

These epiphytic ferns were in Corkscrew Swamp near Naples, Florida.

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