Climbing Ferns and Ephiphytes

Other plants with clever adaptations that use tall trees to get up to the light are climbing ferns and epiphytes. Some of the climbing ferns found in Australian tropical rainforest biomes are Slender Cucumber (Zehneria cunninghamii) and Coarse Climbing Fern (Lygodium reticulatum). Epiphytes such as Birds Nest Fern (Asplenium australasicum) and Northern Elkhorn (Platucerium hillii) don’t even have to climb. They start growing high up on tree trunks as little plants, when birds drop their seeds there. Some epiphytes, like strangler figs (as mentioned above) start growing their roots down until they reach the ground. The host tree is by then killed and the fig tree can lean on its dead trunk, while it would be too weak yet to stand so high up on its roots. By the time the dead tree trunk weakens as it starts rotting, the fig tree roots are strong enough that it can stand by itself. There are many such stangler figs in Australian rainforests, but some of the most famous ones are Curtain Fig Tree and Cathedral Fig Tree onAtherton Tablelands.