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Today, another installment of house plant terminology. Today’s term is epiphyte. So what is an epiphyte? An epiphyte, more commonly known as an air plant, grows upon another plant or object merely for physical support. Epiphytes have no attachment to the ground or other obvious nutrient source and are not parasitic on the supporting plants. By parasitic, that means they don’t feed off the supporting plants; they simply grow on them. They use them as something to grow on.

Most epiphytes are found in moist tropical areas of the world, where their ability to grow above ground level provides access to sunlight in dense shaded forest and allows them to absorb nutrients from their leaves. They also get nutrients from organic debris such as other leaves and things like that that fall on them, so they absorb that way as well.

The majority of epiphytic plants are flowering plants that are found in tropical and temperate regions of the world. Things like orchids – orchids are epiphytes. They attach themselves in their natural habitat to trees and they actually hang upside down. So trees and other vegetation, and they hang upside down. That’s how they normally grow.

Another thing is Tillandsias, or air plants. This one just finished blooming. These guys too are epiphytes. They grow naturally hanging from trees and other plants as mentioned, and I actually have this guy hanging from a fiddle leaf fig. I will be doing a series coming up on growing them indoors as well and how to get them to bloom and do well for you indoors.

Another type of epiphyte is anything in the pineapple family. So members of the pineapple family, bromeliads being some of those. And then mosses and ferns are also often epiphytes.

As mentioned, epiphytes obtain water from rain and water vapor in the air, rather than having their roots in soil like terrestrial plants. So terrestrial plants have their roots in soil; that’s how they grow. Many epiphytic plants propagate by relying on wind to disperse their seeds, and animals may also spread the seeds of epiphytes.

So now you know what epiphytes are, and the term for plants that are epiphytes is epiphytic. There you go.

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