there are estimated to be total of 15,500 species of epiphytic vascular plants.

A monograph on epiphytic plant ecology was written by A. F. W. Schimper (Die epiphytische Vegetation Amerikas, 1888). Assemblages of large epiphytes occur most abundantly in moist tropical forests, but mosses and lichens occur as epiphytes in almost all biomes. In Europe there are no dedicated epiphytic plants using