The mosses, ferns, and lichens draping the rainforest canopy are epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants without parasitizing them. They absorb water and nutrients directly from rain and air rather than from their host. In bigleaf maples especially, epiphyte loads can be so heavy that a single tree supports an entire suspended garden.
All that moss hanging off the branches, the long beards of green, look how heavy it gets. Don't worry for the trees, though. The moss is a freeloader, not a thief. Those mosses and ferns are epiphytes, plants that just perch on the bark and drink moisture straight out of the air and the rain, taking nothing from the tree itself. Up in the maples, a single tree can carry an entire hanging garden on its limbs.
Photo: Ron Clausen · CC BY-SA 4.0
