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.

Leaving his parents in Cuba at the age of 15 and a half the author lived in transition houses, a refugee camp, several foster homes and alone until he reunited with members of his family four years later. A member of the Pedro Pan Program he was able to secure the basic necessities of life for most of that time and able to graduate from high school always pursuing the goal to secure a higher level of education. Letters from family in Cuba provided encouragement and emotional support but ultimately he learned to rely on his own sense of what was the right thing to do as he was confronted with those defining moments where decisions needed to be made. The author has taken a hard and sometimes painful look at his past to retrieve those memories as he prepared to deal with the challenges he faced while seeking an uncertain and undefined future. Reflecting on the experiences of the author's trips back to Cuba starting after a 33 year absence he has come to certain conclusions on topics and themes reflecting on that which has remained the same and that which has changed, always with the hope that a better future may be in the horizon.