Re: secondary hemiepiphytes

From: StellrJ at aol.com on 2000.05.24 at 02:28:27(4623) In a message dated Sat, 20 May 2000 12:26:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time, alan san juan writes: << ok, cool. Thanks to those who gave answers. +More I note though that most explanations focus on why a plant would want to get to the canopy area, as opposed to why it would elect to GET RID of the underlying stem. Is this a competitive advantage that allows these plants to compete equally against others in similar niche (well, you may have a stable water supply, but you gotta spend energy maintaining it, whereas ther is a chance I may end up in an inhospitable spot, but in the meantime, I can recycle old tissue matter into growing at the tips, and growing faster than you)... You may well have it. It could be similar to a rhizomatous habit; rhizomatous plants grow at the shoot end, and die off at the "back" end, gradually migrating in the direction of growth. Rhizomatous plants put out roots all along their underground stems (rhizomes). Your secondary hemiepiphytes do the same all along their climbing stems. The question is, are there terrestrial rhizomatous plants in the same genera as secondary epiphytes? This could suggest an evolutionary relationship between the two habits. Jason Hernandez Naturalist-at-Large

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