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Epiphytic heathers
Perhaps unexpectedly, the canopies of the moist, cool montane rain forests are home
to a plant family also found in our own latitudes, the heathers or Ericaceae. Despite
their permanently humid surroundings, like most epiphytes, they have to carefully
husband their water. Their leaves are shiny and leathery, and the bases of their
trunks often form a tuber-like water reservoir. If you look at the wall of the
greenhouse, you can see the swollen trunks of Macleania and other species.
The blossoms of these epiphytic heathers mostly look very different from those
found here in Europe. Their corollas are elongated into long, narrow, colorful
tubes, mostly in bright shades of red and orange, but often complemented with
greens and yellows. In their native habitat, the highland rain forests of Central
and South America, these displays attract hummingbirds, the only birds with beaks
long and slender enough to reach the flowers‘ coveted nectar. The Ericaceae are
just one of many bird-pollinated epiphytes of the American tropics.
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Epiphytic heathers (MP3, 487 KB)
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