English Dictionary

epiphyte

noun

(botany) A plant that grows on another, using it for physical support but obtaining no nutrients from it and neither causing damage nor offering benefit; an air plant.

The epiphyte thrives on the branches of the tall tree.

意味（1）

(botany) A plant that grows on another, using it for physical support but obtaining no nutrients from it and neither causing damage nor offering benefit; an air plant.

It has been suggested to me that these fine plants will not prove cultivable, because they are epiphytes. […] The probability however is, that they do not require to be treated as epiphytes, and that, like orchids, they will grow better if committed judiciously to the earth.

意味（2）

(biology) A fungus that grows on a plant but does not feed upon it saprotrophically (an epiphytic fungus); the science of detecting and studying any such symbiosis as may be involved in this relationship is still developing.