Zufallsepiphyten – Pflanzen auf dem Weg nach oben?

Abstract

Vascular plants growing epiphytically on other plants, primarily trees, vary in the degree of fidelity to their living substrate. Some species are virtually never found growing terrestrially ("obligate epiphytes"), whilst in other cases the majority of all individuals are soil-rooted ("accidental epiphytes"). While there is a rather clear distinction between epiphytic and terrestrial plants in tropical lowland forest, the relative proportion of accidental epiphytes among the arboreal vascular flora increases towards higher altitudes and latitudes. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study on accidental epiphytes in a temperate montane forest in the Swiss Alps, summarises the existing information on accidental epiphytism (emphasising in particular the older literature, which is widely scattered, and not readily accessible through search machines), and discusses the phenomenon in an ecological and evolutionary context.