Epifytiska växter i Sverige

Abstract

A total of 122 vascular plant species arereported growing as epiphytes in Sweden. Wittrock(1894) recorded 105 species, 34 of which were foundalso in the present study. In all, 51 species wew foundin this study, 17 of which were new compared toWittrock (1894).All observations were photo-documented, andthis material can be found in the form of pdf-fileson the Fauna & Flora website http://www.artdata.slu.se/FaunaochFlora/default.asp. Table 3 presents alist of all (122) scientific names in alphabetical order.In accordance with Wittrock (1894), the treesharbouring epiphytes were divided into the followingthree sections: stem-base b 0.1-0.6m above theground, mid-section m 0.6-2m above the ground, oron the unbranched trunk, and crown section k ≥2mabove the ground, or in the tree-crown.When more observations are added, it will probablybecome evident that most epiphytic species cangrow in all three sections.The majority of the epiphytic species (66) are perennials,and six of them are sporophytes. Three speciesare biennial, and 29 are annuals; mainly summer annuals,but also a few winter annuals. 13 shrub speciesand 11 tree species were found as epiphytes. Themost common epiphytic species was, in fact, rowanSorbus aucuparia. The tree species harbouring the largestnumber of epiphytes (31 species) was maple Acerplatanoides.The question of how these species came to growepiphytically is also discussed. None of them is a trueepiphyte, adapted to grow in trees. Evidently some ofthe species are wind-dispersed, whereas many othersare transported by animals (notably ants, squirrels andbirds). Mattias Iwarsson Centrum för biologisk mångfald.E-post: mattias.iwarsson@slu.se and Mattias.Biologi@telia.com

Keywords

vascular plants; epiphyte; animal dispersal; wind dispersal

Published in

Fauna och flora
2015, volume: 110, number: 2, pages: 26-40

SLU Authors

• Iwarsson, Mattias

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

SLU Swedish Biodiversity Centre

UKÄ Subject classification

Botany
Ecology
Behavioral Sciences Biology

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/67418