Ball moss growing in the air

Epiphytic plant attached to an wire over a street - Photo: Still Gravity.
We found a blooming epiphytic plant holding on a street wire - License our images here.

These plants are amazing survivors. Known as epiphytic, they get food and moisture from the air. Their roots secure them to other plants or artificial structures like this public utility wire. 

Well-known epiphytics are orchids, bromeliads, and mosses like Spanish moss - check this photo of the Fairchild Oak of Bulow Creek State Park with plenty of them. Fungal partners of plants as lichens are also epiphytes. 

My photo shows a ball moss (Tillandsia recurvata). This flowering plant takes a spheric shape. The wind takes care of spreading their seeds. Ball moss matures in three years and then blooms for seven years. 

Epiphytes don't harm the host plant. The amazing mechanisms of the natural world.

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