When I saw all of the epiphytes covering the big trees at the research station, I was truly mesmierized. The epiphytes transform the rainforest into the lush and green ecosystem that we see here.
Epiphytes are also called "air plants" because they are not connected to the ground and live completely on top of their host plants' branches. These plants can only be found in tropical ecosystems at low and high altitudes. Some epiphytes with which you may be familiar include orchids and ferns.
Epiphytes use their host plants to survive in order to compete for nutrients. As I mentioned previously, the epiphyte does not harm its host plant and mainly uses it in order to stay off of the ground and get closer to the sun.
Some epiphytes are endagered species. However, we are not generally worried about epiphytes. More often, we are worried about the creatures that benefit from epiphytes. For example, a variety of tree frogs and poison dart frogs use species of epiphytes called bromelaids in which to lay their eggs. These frogs are endangered, and so by protecting the epiphytes, we are also protecting the frogs.
