Epiphytes

Epiphytes (Gr. epi, 'upon,' phyton, 'a plant'), often and popularly, but less correctly, called Air-plants, are plants which are not rooted in the ground, but are attached to trees, &c. Mosses and lichens themselves, growing upon trees, may be called epiphytes, but the term is generally used of phanerogamous plants. It is chiefly in warm and moist climates that phanerogamous epiphytes are found, and in those which are also moist, although many exhibit considerable endurance of drought. Most of them prefer shady situations. Within the tropics, they often form an interesting and remarkable feature of the vegetation. Some of the Bromeliaceæ (as Tillandsia), Cactaceæ, Araceæ, Gesneraceæ, and other orders are epiphytes; most frequently, however, the Orchidaceæ. See ORCHIDS, TILLANDSIA, &c.; and Kerner's Pflanzenleben.