Vascular Plants as Epiphytes

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XI

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2. Vascular Epiphytes:Setting the Scene

   • U. Lüttge

   Pages 1-14

3. The Evolution of Epiphytism

   • D. H. Benzing

   Pages 15-41

4. Carbon Dioxide Concentrating Mechanisms and the Evolution of CAM in Vascular Epiphytes

   • H. Griffiths

   Pages 42-86

5. Gas Exchange and Water Relations in Epiphytic Tropical Ferns

   • M. Kluge, P. N. Avadhani, C. J. Goh

   Pages 87-108

6. Epiphytic Bromeliads

   • J. A. C. Smith

   Pages 109-138

7. Gas Exchange and Water Relations in Epiphytic Orchids

   • C. J. Goh, M. Kluge

   Pages 139-166

8. The Mineral Nutrition of Epiphytes

   • D. H. Benzing

   Pages 167-199

9. Epiphytic Associations with Ants

   • D. W. Davidson, W. W. Epstein

   Pages 200-233

10. The Systematic Distribution of Vascular Epiphytes

    • W. J. Kress

    Pages 234-261

11. Back Matter

    Pages 263-270

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In his lectures my teacher Karl Mägdefrau used to say that one only becomes a real plant scientist when one enters a tropical rainforest. For me this initiation occurred in 1969 in northern Queensland, Australia, and was associated with the greatest excitement. On another level it received confirmation when I set out in 1983 together with some friends and colleagues for the first detailed ecophysiological studies of epiphytes in the wet tropics in situ in the island of Trinidad and later for similar work in Venezuela. This then promoted the idea of organizing a special symposium on "The evolution and ecophysiology of vascular plants as epiphytes" during the XIV International Botanical Congress in luly 1987 in Berlin, and to ask some of the speakers to produce chapters for a small monograph on the interesting ecologically defined group of plants "epiphytes" as presented in this volume of "Ecological Studies". The enthusiasm of the participants of the symposium giving reports and adding to the discussion was most stimulating, and it appears that epiphytes might gain well-deserved, wider consideration in the future. The cooperation with the authors of this book was very pleasant and I appreciated the new contacts established with adepts of the "epiphyte community". The chapters were organized and arranged covering first more gen­ eral aspects with setting the scene in Chapter 1, the evolution of epi­ phytism in Chapter 2 and the role of CO -concentrating mechanisms in 2 Chapter 3.

• adaptation
• biomass
• carbon
• ecophysiology
• evolution
• forest
• metabolism
• mineral nutrition
• nutrition
• physiology
• plant
• plants

• Institut für Botanik, TH Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

  Ulrich Lüttge

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