Epiphytes: Air Plants & More

Ball moss is a common epiphyte & is typical
of what most people imagine when they
think "air plant." It attaches itself to a tree
& spends its life there.
 

Epiphyte derives from Greek epi- 'upon' and phyton 'plant'. An epiphyte is a non-parasitic, organism that grows on a plant and that derives moisture & nutrition from its surrounding ecosystem. Most people associate this with the terrestrial epiphytes or "air plants" that make their living without touching the ground, but wait, there's more...

Terrestrial epiphytes

Terrestrial epiphytes are plentiful where there is frequent rain or fog such as rain forests (both tropical and temperate) and also areas like Florida, especially near wetlands, but some epiphytes are also found in drier areas. They could be vascular flowering plants such as orchids, cacti, or bromeliads including ball moss & Spanish moss. They include vascular spore-producing plants such as ferns. Almost 10% of vascular plants are epiphytic.  Non-vascular, spore-producing plants such as mosses and club mosses are frequently epiphytes. 

Since epiphytic life can be precarious, many of these plants have fine hairs or waxy surfaces to trap or keep water. Some collect water in-between their leaves, but others have adapted to water shortages by using the CAM or C4 method of photosynthesis that can take place even when all their stomata (leaf pores) are closed to conserve water.

Lichens, which are not plants, but 3-way symbiotic organisms (fungi, algae, & bacteria), are also epiphytes when attached to plants. 

Strangler figs (Ficus spp.) are a special case: they are hemi-epiphytes when they begin life as a epiphyte high in the canopy, but when their aerial roots reach the ground, they are no longer epiphytes. It's a clever strategy, especially in rain forests where there is low light on the ground and the canopy is crowded. It's in the light when its young and it often takes over its host's spot in the canopy after strangling it by wrapping its roots around it.
(See below for more on terrestrial epiphytes.)

These barnacles, sessile animals (crustaceans),
attached to a kelp stipe (stem above the holdfast),
are marine epiphytes. 

Marine epiphytes

In the marine environment, plants, such as non-vascular seaweeds and vascular, flowering seagrasses, provide surfaces where sessile organisms can settle. Marine epiphytes include algae (micro & macro), bacteria, sponges, bryozoans, ascidians, protozoa, hydroids, crustaceans, & mollusks. They make their living from the nutrients and oxygen from the surrounding water, not from the plants. Sometimes, when there are too many epiphytes, the host plant may suffer from lack of light or lack of its own gas exchange.

Perennial Peanut is not "Florida-Friendly"

In general, I agree with the "9 Florida-Friendly Principles: 1) Right Plant, Right Place; 2) Water Efficiently; 3) Fertilize Appropriately; 4) Mulch; 5) Attract Wildlife; 6) Manage Yard Pests Responsibly; 7) Recycle; 8) Reduce Storm Water Runoff; and 9) Protect the Waterfront. The overall goal is to reduce nonpoint source pollution through proper fertilization, irrigation, and pesticide use on residential and commercial landscapes."

BUT, over the years I have been critical of the "Florida-Friendly" plant list since only about half of the named plants are actually native to Florida. As a botanist and naturalist, I think that the percentage of Florida natives should be 75% or higher. In most cases, though, the non-native plants are "okay" even though they don't support native pollinators or native birds as well as natives do. 

One exception, in my opinion, is the very aggressive perennial peanut or grassnut (Arachis glabrata), which is in the bean family (Fabaceae) and like other members of this family they fix nitrogen* with the aid of their symbiotic Rhizobium bacteria, so they can grow well in poor soil. 

Coonties: Florida's only native cycad & only Atala butterfly host plant

Coontie is a popular native for parking lots
like this hospital lot in Jacksonville, because it
doesn't need trimming to maintain this height.

Coontie (Zamia integrifolia), a beautiful & unique plant native to most of Florida & some Caribbean islands, has an interesting history of over exploitation & the near extinction of the Atala butterfly (Eumaeus atala) that depends on this plant as its larval food source. Today, coontie is widely planted in all of Florida because it's attractive, drought-tolerant, salt-spray tolerant, plus it grows in poor soil & does not need trimming. 

Coontie is a Cycad

Cycads are ancient plants that have a fossil record that shows that they have not changed much in the last 68 million years. They are gymnosperms, which means naked seed. (Pines are also gymnosperms.) Angiosperms, the flowering plants with their enclosed ovaries and their pollinators such as bees & butterflies developed much later. 

Cycads bear pollen and ovaries in fleshy cone-like structures at ground level on separate male and female plants. They are pollinated by beetles and the coonties use heat in the cones at different times to attract the beetles to the male cones and then to travel to the heat in the female cones. This is called thermogenesis.

Soil: We Need to Stop Treating it Like Dirt

Gardeners can improve their soil.

Why is soil important for gardeners?

We’ve all heard about growing the right plants in the right places so they’ll survive, but without healthy soil, your plants (even the right plants) will suffer or even die. So let’s look at what’s under our feet.

 (This article is an updated version of one I wrote for a garden blog several years ago, which is no longer available online.)

Healthy soil ecosystems are a complex interaction
 between bacteria, fungi, insects, & more.

Soil: the ecosystem beneath our feet

Soil found in native habitats is a complex ecosystem of bacteria, fungi, nematodes, earthworms, ants, salamanders, toads, insect larvae, moles, and more, all living in a substrate of minerals and humus. The minerals are a mixture of rocks, sand, silt, and/or clay. The humus or organic matter consists of fully or partially digested plant and animal parts. As humus is broken down into simple compounds, it provides a living for the decomposers, and eventually yields nutrients for plants. 

One gram (about 1/5 teaspoon) of healthy, non-poisoned soil could contain one hundred million bacteria, one million actinomycetes (a filamentous bacteria), and one hundred thousand fungi; if strung together, their filaments or hyphae would measure about 16 feet (5 meters) in length. This same gram of soil could also contain hundreds of nematodes living on the damp surfaces of the soil particles and maybe a few insect eggs or larvae and some earthworm cocoons. The exact proportions of each of these organisms will depend on soil conditions such as moisture, acidity, aeration, amount of humus, and the local plant community growing in the soil. 

A Quest for a Perfect Lawn: a Case Study

This graphic makes the point about how
out-of-step people are for trying to
maintain unnatural&unsustainable lawns.

To celebrate Earth Day, this post is about rethinking the "perfect" lawns, which are maintained with applications of fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, and never allowed to go into seasonal dormancy. In Florida winter-dormant grasses are over-seeded with cool-weather grasses, irrigated through the dry season, & fertilized. 

Today's lawn expectations go way back to how European formal gardens & lawns around castles and manor houses were kept to show others how wealthy the owners were.

Today, lawn-"care" organizations can make lots of money by encouraging homeowners to have "perfect" lawns, but does it make sense or cents? As a botanist, naturalist, and a sustainable gardener, I would say, "NO!" 

There are so many reasons for replacing most of your lawn acreage with unpoisoned native habitat & pollinator gardens and then freeing the remainder of your lawn from all pesticides & synthetic fertilizers, mowing it less often at the highest setting, letting it go dormant in the winter & allow a variety of plants that tolerate mowing to grow there.

Measuring Climate Change

Figure 1: Weather balloon with
parachute and radiosonde.

Q: Do you believe in global warming?
A: We are Measuring it.

Guest blog post by Dr. Charlie Paxton, meterologist

We meteorologists have surface temperature measurements all over the world and with continued automation more measurements are being taken as time goes on. We must also consider what is happening above the ground. Weather balloons carry instruments called radiosondes that report temperature, moisture, wind, and pressure as they ascend into the stratosphere. Satellites, both geostationary and polar orbiting, provide a wealth of atmospheric information including global sea level measurements.

The Birds are NOT OK

What is the birds-eye view of your yard
your community?

Birds Aren’t Just Declining.
They’re Declining Faster!

Scientists studying data collected for more than three decades found accelerating losses. The steepest losses in the study, from 1987 to 2021, were seen in Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Arizona. This research offers clues about the causes. Here are links to a gift article in the NY Times that looks at this research and to a WashingtonPost gift article, which both cite the same study.

This research showed a correlation with increased use of pesticides in agricultural regions, but it also linked back to an older study showing that cats cause huge harm to our birds. I wrote about that as well and how controversial this is in this article.

This Red-shouldered Hawk provided its
opinion on how humans treat birds.

BUT...

Whatever the causes for their decline, we are NOT helpless and, as Joan Baez stated, "Action is the antidote to despair."

There are many actions we can take to make our yards and our communities more bird friendly. I've covered this topic from several different angles over the years, so I've gathered some of the most relevant articles here to make it easier for people to up their game at this critical time. The birds need us to act now more than ever.

Alders Fix Nitrogen

Smooth alder or hazel alder (Alnus serrulata)
Photos by Georgia Native Plant Society

Hazel alder or smooth alder (Alnus serrulata) is blooming now with its showy yellow catkins. The woody female flower heads look like little pine cones. It's a tall multi-stemmed shrub to small tree in the birch family (Betulaceae).

This alder is native to freshwater and brackish water wetlands from Texas to Maine and into North Florida. It plays an important role in these wetlands because it fixes nitrogen in its root nodules using Frankia, a genus of anaerobic, filamentous bacteria in the Actinomycetes order. 

When soil is wet all or most of the time it is anaerobic (without air) and in these conditions, the normal soil microbes cannot survive and most plants cannot obtain enough nutrients from this soil. The alders' symbiotic relationship with this weird bacteria provides the nutrients they need to survive and they do so without much competition from other plants.

Florida Betony

Florida betony develops ridged tubers that
look sorta like a rattlesnake tail and are edible.

Florida betony (Stachys floridana) is an aggressive perennial wildflower. Most botanists think that it was originally endemic to Florida, but now has spread to most of the Southeastern states from Virginia to Texas. It's a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) and has the typical square stems and opposite leaves along the stems. The beautiful bilateral flowers range from whitish to purple arranged on a spike. It does best in damp soils.

The tubers are edible

It's also known rattlesnake weed because of its rattle-like tuber. Florida betony tubers are edible when harvested in the spring when they are firm and white, but only if the area has not been poisoned with lawn-care chemicals. They have the crispness of a water chestnut with a taste reminiscent of a very mild radish. Most people don't eat them later in the season when they turn tan or yellow and are not as crisp.

Sticks as Mulch

Using sticks as mulch reduces weed growth.

Mulches & mulching

Over the years, I've written about mulching and mulches in my seven books and in various articles: 
- Pine needle mulch (the most read post on this blog)
- Wood chip mulch 
- Too much mulch
- Rock-scaping & more.

But for the past several years, I've also been using sticks as mulch near buildings to reduce weed infestations. Unlike other mulching materials, there's a lot of air or space between the sticks, so there's nothing there for seedlings. Eventually, some weeds that spread via rhizomes or stolons, such as fog fruit (Phyla nodiflora) or Florida betony (Stachys floridana) work their way into the space, but very few seed-spread weeds. 

This type of mulching works well for our yard because have lots of trees. A good time to create a stick-mulch area is after a high-wind event. Yes, we also have several stick piles to create habitat for small birds and various insects, so I don't usually raid those piles for sticks for mulching.