What Are Air Plants?

Air Plant

Air plants are plants that grow on other plants for support and get their water and food from the air.  Many ferns, mosses and orchids are air plants.

Some plants spend their entire lives perches high in trees.  These  plants are called air plants.  Another name for them is epiphytes (pronounced EP ih fites), a name that means “upon plants.”

Many orchids and ferns are air plants.  Spanish moss, which hangs in long, gray festoons from tree branches, is a well-known air plants of the southern United States. Unlike mistletoe, a plant that steals its food from the plant it grows on, the air plant does not take any food from its host.  The only help it needs from the host plant is to be lifted up into the sunshine.

It gets nourishment by taking water directly from the air and from decayed matter which collects on the plant or on the bark of the tree. Some air plants have long, spongy air roots that dangle in the moist air and soak up the water they need.  Others take in moisture from the air through their leaves or stems.-Dick Rogers

What is a Spanish moss?

SPANISH MOSS IS AN AIR PLANT THAT CAN BE SEEN IN SOME SOUTHERN STATES HANGING IN LONG, GRAY STREAMERS FROM TREES. 

Spanish moss is a plant that can be seen hanging in long, gray streamers from the limbs of trees in the cypress swamps of the South.  It is not really a moss at all, but an air plant that belongs to the pineapple family. 

Spanish moss spends its entire life perched in trees.  Unlike mistletoe, a plant that steals its food from the tree it grows on, Spanish moss lives entirely upon what it can get out of the air. 

The only help it needs from the host tree is to be lifted up into the sunlight. 

It has no roots.  It’s long, slender stems and leaves, which look like hair hanging from the trees, are covered with scaly hairs that take in water and food from the moist air.  It has tiny yellow flowers, but not many people notice them. 

The seeds are formed in tiny pods.  When these open, the seeds are carried by the wind.  Some find a perch and can start growing.  Spanish moss is sometimes dried and used to stuff furniture.  – Dick Rogers