Air Plants: Epiphytes and Aerial Gardens

£30.00

Air Plants: Epiphytes and Aerial Gardens Author: Format: Hardback First Published: Published By: Cornell University Press
string(3) "256"
Pages: 256 Illustrations and other contents: 20 Graphs; 24 Plates, color ISBN: 9780801450433 Category:

Often growing far above the ground, “air plants” (or epiphytes) defy many of our common perceptions about plants. The majority use their roots only for attachment but only the mistletoes are true parasites. Epiphytes are not anomalies and there are approximately 28,000 species—about 10 percent of the higher or vascular plants—that grow this way including many popular houseplants. The author provides a tour of the many taxonomic groups to which the epiphytes belong and explains in nontechnical language the anatomical and physiological adaptations that allow these plants to conserve water, thrive without the benefit of soil, and engage in unusual relationships with animals such as frogs and ants.

Benzing’s comprehensive account covers topics including ecology, evolution, photosynthesis and water relations, mineral nutrition, reproduction, and the nature of the forest canopy as habitat for the free-living and parasitic epiphytes. It also pays special attention to important phenomena such as adaptive trade-offs and leaf economics. Drawing on the latest scientific research, this book is accessible to readers unfamiliar with technical botany; it features a lavish illustration program, references, a glossary, and tables.
Hardback
256 pages. 105 illustrations

Weight1 kg
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Benzing's love for epiphytes is clearly evident, and the book provides an excellent introduction to the field.... By starting from first principles, it provides a tidy introduction to field botany to an undergraduate audience.... All the basic principles of botany are covered using epiphytes as model organisms.... The systematic overview of epiphyte diversity in particular provides an important, holistic grounding in epiphyte taxonomy, biogeography, and systematics.... There is something in it for everyone, from newcomers to plant biology to those who regularly climb trees to do their research. -- K. C. Burns * Ecology * David Benzing's exuberance is evident throughout this book. His love of epiphytes... captivates the reader.... Benzing’s is a well-conceived and well-executed testimony to epiphytes and serves to bring together up-to-date information about these not very well understood plants. It provides a basis for further inquiry to round out our understanding of this peculiar life style of plants and points out areas where further study would be productive. -- William Stern * Plant Science Bulletin * Modest in size, but not in content and scope, Benzing's pithy gem of a synthesis appears 22 years after his technical monograph, Vascular Epiphytes (1990).... Summing Up: Highly recommended. -- R. Schmid * Choice *