This book presents a synthesis of the extensive information available on the biology of Bromeliacea, a largely neotropical family of about 2700 described species. The author emphasizes reproductive and vegetative structure, related physiology, ecology, and evolution, rather than floristics and taxonomy. Guiding questions include: Why is this family inordinately successful in arboreal (epiphytic) and other typically stressful habitats and why is this family so important to extensive fauna beyond pollinators and frugivores in the forest canopy? Extraordinary and sometimes novel mechanisms that mediate water balance, tolerance for high and low exposures, and mutualisms with ants have received much study and allow interesting comparisons among plant taxa and help explain why members of this taxon exhibit more adaptive and ecological variety than most other families of flowering plants. This volume concentrates on function and underlying mechanisms, thus it will round out a literature that otherwise mostly ignores basic biology in favor of taxonomy and horticulture.

This synthesis of the growing body of information from research on epiphytes and their relations with other tropical biota provides a comprehensive overview of basic functions, life history, evolution, and the place of epiphytes in complex tropical communities. Epiphytes comprise more than one-third of the tropical vascular flora in some tropical forests. Growing within tropical forest canopies, epiphytes are subject to severe environmental constraints, and their diverse adaptations make them a rich resource for studies of water balance, nutrition, reproduction and evolution.

Epiphytes (plants which grow on other plants, not parasitically but for support), comprise more than one-third of the total vascular flora in some tropical forests. Growing within tropical forest canopies, epiphytes are subject to severe environmental constraints, and their diverse adaptations make them a rich resource for studies of water balance, nutrition, reproduction and evolution. This book synthesizes the body of information from research on epiphytes and their relations with other tropical biota, and provides a comprehensive overview of basic functions, life history, evolution, and the place of epiphytes in complex tropical communities. Tropical ecologists and zoologists as well as plant scientists will find this volume a useful guide to research on the twenty-five thousand species of epiphytes which root in the crowns of tropical trees.