epiphyte

/ˌɛpəˈfaɪt/

Other forms: epiphytes

When one plant grows on another without harming it, it's an epiphyte. Tiny ferns and mosses growing on tree trunks are epiphytes.

In rainforests, orchids and bromeliads are common epiphytes, attached to other plants but getting their nutrients from the air around them. In more temperate regions, you might see lichens (not technically plants, but still epiphytes) and moss growing on dead trees and guess they're responsible for killing their host — but these epiphytes are simply taking advantage of the increased sunlight and physical support of the bare trunks. You can grow an epiphyte of your own, too, by buying a tiny "air plant."

Definitions of epiphyte

1. noun

   a plant that derives moisture and nutrients from the air and rain; usually grows on another plant but not parasitic on it
   synonyms: aerophyte, air plant, epiphytic plant

   types:

   Clusia insignis, waxflower

   epiphytic clusia of British Guiana

   Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides, black moss, long moss, old man's beard

   dense festoons of greenish-grey hairlike flexuous strands anchored to tree trunks and branches by sparse wiry roots; southeastern United States and West Indies to South America

   aeschynanthus

   a plant of the genus Aeschynanthus having somewhat red or orange flowers and seeds having distinctive hairs at base and apex

   hemiepiphyte, semiepiphyte

   a plant that is an epiphyte for part of its life

   strangler, strangler tree

   an epiphytic vine or tree whose aerial roots extend down the trunk of a supporting tree and coalesce around it eventually strangling the tree

   Clusia major, Clusia rosea, pitch apple, strangler fig

   a common tropical American clusia having solitary white or rose flowers

   Aeschynanthus radicans, lipstick plant

   epiphyte or creeping on rocks; Malaysian plant having somewhat fleshy leaves and bright red flowers

   type of:

   flora, plant, plant life

   (botany) a living organism lacking the power of locomotion