If you’ve ever been to Florida or other nearby warm-weather destinations, you’ve likely seen the inception-esque forest scene where there is a plant, on a plant, on a plant, creating a hairy forest hobo. These are Tillandsia of the Bromeliad family, commonly called air plants.
Air plants are epiphytes, meaning they derive moisture and nutrients from the air and rainwater. They use their specialized trichomes, tiny hair-like structures covering their leaves, to absorb moisture and nutrients. These trichomes can also help the plants to reflect excess sunlight, protecting them from drying out and also give them their whimsy, fuzzy appearance.
Although many air plants do have small roots, these are used to harmlessly grip onto their foundation, not to extract nutrients. Air plants frequently grow on trees, but certain varieties can also be found on rocks or study man-made surfaces, like roofs.
Their ability to derive nutrients from dust particulates and rainwater makes air plants cost-effective quality indicators of their local ecosystem. Tillandsia species, such as Spanish Moss, as well as other epiphytes likes mosses and lichens, are used as bioindicators of environmental pollution near industrial and agricultural sites.
Air plants adapt to their environment, inhabiting both humid rain forest and dry deserts, primarily from Mexico to South America. Coincidentally, there is excellent overlap between Tillandsia habitat and top countries for cocaine trade. Snitches get stiches, so those little bioindicator air plants better keep their trichomes zipped if they know what’s good for them.
To learn more about air plants, check out these resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillandsia
https://www.thesill.com/blog/plants-101-epiphytes-and-air-plants
