= Epiphyte
An <epiphyte> is a <plant> growing on another <plant> as a physical support, without obtaining its food by drawing from that support plant as a <parasitic plant> does. The support can place the <epiphyte> above the ground, but it does not eliminate requirements for water, mineral nutrients and, in a photosynthetic <epiphyte>, light. <Tillandsia usneoides> is a familiar <epiphyte> in <Bromeliaceae>.<Tillandsia usneoides in Plants of the World Online>[Accepted taxon record and Kew Species Profile: epiphytic habit and shoot-surface absorption]{ref}
Physical support and water supply are separate problems. In <Tillandsia usneoides>, surface <trichomes> help collect and distribute water rather than relying on a conventional ground-rooted supply. A study compared water movement across shoots with intact <trichome> wings and shoots without those wings, using fluorescent droplets to reveal surface spreading.<Domino-like water transport on Tillandsia through flexible trichome wings by Nami Ha and others>[Results and Figure3: external water transport with/without wings]{ref}
For an illustrative classification exercise, record three facts independently: what supports a <plant>, where its water comes from, and whether it draws nutrients directly from another living <plant>. Growing on a branch answers only the first. Nor does a shared epiphytic habit place two <plants> in the same <taxonomic family>; habitat and ancestry are different kinds of biological information.
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