epiphyte

Foster's Freckles bromeliad is a tender tropical perennial grown primarily for its broad, upright, thick, lance-shaped leaves with small spines on the edges. The foliage is light green and mottled with burgundy-brown spots. If you are lucky enough to have it bloom, you’ll be rewarded with a tall red inflorescence which is bi-colored cream and red while in bud. After the plant flowers, it dies, but not before it creates young plants, or pups, at its base that will grow to replace the dying mother.

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Aechmea aquilega, the eagle aechmea, is a perennial tropical bromeliad grown for its exotic blooms and attractive wide foliage. This bromeliad produces long-lasting, large inflorescences of yellow, pink, and orange bracts (modifed leaves) from a rosette of upright leaves. The foliage is mottled light green with white scales on the edges that will puncture skin. This versatile plant can be grown in the well-draining ground or as an epiphyte (growing on another plant). It is related to the...

Urn plant is a tender tropical bromeliad native to Brazil, living under the rainforest canopy found clinging to the branches and trunks of tropical trees. It is grown for its ornamental leaves and long-lasting pink inflorescence. The huge, lance-shaped leaves are gray-green and silver with subtle horizontal stripes and spiny edges. They are bowed and often curve downward as they lengthen. It produces one, very long-lasting flowerspike borne on a thick, central stem. The tiny flowers arise from the...

Lovely in form with rich green foliage atop a chain-like mass of long roots, Houllet's aerides orchid bears a deliciously fragrant gold and fuchsia flower cluster in early summer. A fairly large-sized epiphytic (growing upon another plant) evergreen orchid, this species is native to the hot, sulty lowlands of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It has a growth habit that is called vandaceous (Vanda orchid-like), with extremely long aerial roots and a fan-like leaf mass atop the stem-like pseudobulb.

The...

Graceful in foliage and flower, aerides-with-five-wounds orchid bears a fragrant drooping cluster of ivory and fuchsia-violet spotted small blossoms in summer and autumn. A large-sized epiphytic (growing upon another plant) evergreen orchid, this species is native to forested tropical highlands of Malaysia and the Philippines. It grows from a short pseudobulb with dangling aerial roots that will clasp to tree trunks for support.

The leaves are leathery and strap-like with two lobes at their...

With fantastic drooping stems lined with apple green and white flowers, Angraecum eburneum is a large clumping orchid that bedazzles from mid-autumn across winter. A tender tropical evergreen perennial orchid native to the highly humid, moist forests of eastern Madagascar, the nearby southwestern Indian Ocean islands and eastern coastal Africa, its long flower parts are pollinated by hawk moths at night. The starry flowers with long "tails" gives rise to a common name of comet orchid.

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A magnificent large clumping orchid with spotted flowers in late spring and summer, leopard orchid also has a white root mass that forms a bucket-like clump that naturally vegetates treetops. A cold-tender evergreen from the drier forests across all of tropical sub-Saharan Africa, from the coastal plains to interior highlands, it is variable in its colors on its spotted flowers.

The giant clumping plant grows many cane-like pseudobulbs that are noded and carry six to seven green leaves that are...

A miniature orchid with an attractive fan of leaves, Ascocentrum miniatum is no less than stunning when the cluster of brilliant orange flowers appear in spring and last for months! An evergreen frost-tender orchid from Thailand, it is an epiphyte (grows upon another plant such as a tree branch). It is called the rust-red ascocentrum, and is very similiar in habit and flower to Ascocentrum garayi.

The small plant looks like a fan. The fleshy, leathery roots clasp to the tree...

Queen's tears is a clumping epiphytic tender perennial with narrow pendent flowers of highly unusual coloration. They have reflexed green petals with a narrow band of purple-blue around their edges and pink bracts at their bases. The plant resembles a fountain-shaped grass until the short red flower stalks and multiple flowers appear. The flowers are excellent for cutting as they are long lasting. This plant belongs to the pineapple family and is native from southern Brazil to Paraguay where it...

Beautiful in the daylight, but only fragrant when the sun goes down, lady of the night produces its white blossoms in spring, often with a second reblooming in the autumn. A clumping tender perennial orchid, this epiphyte (grows upon another plant) is native to Mexico and Central America into Colombia and Venezuela. It can be found in the upper branches of mangroves and lowland trees as well as cliff rocks.

The leaves are stiff, rich green and narrow, sometimes curling to look somewhat like long...