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Re: TT: Re: Tree-top shrubs - an epiphyte?

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For many epiphytes, bark pH, or the pH of stemflow are important.  Stemflow
is rain water that falls on a tree,then flows down the stem. Lots of
epiphytes like the "sweet" stemflow of hardwoods rather than the acid
stemflow of conifers.

All that being said, I don't know exactly what trees can host Spanish moss.
Any of our more Southerly correspondents want to go out and look?



Tom Kimmerer
Forest Biologist
University of Kentucky
Lexington KY 40546
Ph:    606-257-1824
Fax:    606-323-1031
tkimmer@pop.uky.edu
Visit the TreeWeb at http://quercus.uky.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: RT Ellsberry <rtells@Flora.Com>
To: Community_Forestry <TreeTown@Majordomo.Flora.Com>
Date: Sunday, February 01, 1998 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: TT: Re: Tree-top shrubs - an epiphyte?


> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> On Sun, 1 Feb 1998, Tom Kimmerer wrote:
>
>> Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneiodes, is an epiphyte.  Surprisingly, it
isn't
>> a moss at all but a flowering plant in the Bromeliaceae, the pineapple
>> family.  It grows on hardwood trees in the deep south, where high
humidity
>> and rainfall bring adequate water and nutrients to the plants. It is an
>> integral part of community forestry in cities such as Savannah, where
>> streets lined with live oak draped in Spanish moss are highly valued.
>
>Thanks for the info, Tom.  I should have realized that we were seeing
>mistletoe down there.  About the Spanish moss, does it 'know' that 'it
>grows on hardwood trees?'  If it takes no nutrients from its host, then
>wouldn't it be just as likely to gather on other trees, houses, phone
>cables?  Are there trees that Spanish moss doesn't like?  One would
>suspect that the hardwoods provide for a more 'sustainable' environment.
>
> Richard@Flora.Com
> TreeTown ListOp
> Baltimore USDA Zone 7
>
>
> ==============================(TreeTown)===============================
>


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