Re: secondary hemiepiphytes

From: StellrJ at aol.com on 2000.05.24 at 02:27:42(4622) In a message dated Fri, 19 May 2000 2:55:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time, SelbyHort@aol.com writes: << True epiphytes have a different root structure that allows them to very +More efficiently absorb and hold even trace amounts of moisture very quickly. They can grab moisture and nutrients from the rainforest clouds as they pass through the canopy. Hence the term, "cloud forest" for the high altitude tropical forests. The cloud forests are much cooler than lowland rainforest -- cool enough to be called temperate, but without the disadvantage of frost. The cloud forest at Montverde, Costa Rica, is much richer in epiphyte biomass than the lowland rainforest of La Selva, Costa Rica, while the latter has far more climbers and lianas. < scramble to great heights. Hemiephytes have developed flowering strategies to utilize different pollinators or seed dispersers that reside high in the canopy. These agents are perhaps not found on the ground, or the canopy residents may be more efficient at their tasks than ground dwellers, so the hemiepiphtye wants to get their flowers up to them. But, then there are those species which climb up to the light, but then send their flowers downward to near the ground, e.g., the legume Mucuna. Sometimes, light itself may be incentive enough to take the epiphytic route. (Although Mucuna, AFAIK, does not sever its tie to the ground. Jason Hernandez Naturalist-at-Large

Note: this is a very old post, so no reply function is available.