epiphyte

plural epiphytes

1. biologyA plant that grows on another, using it for physical support but obtaining no nutrients from it and neither causing damage nor offering benefit.

   The nature of the surface of a plant also determines the number and sort of Epiphytes which lodge on it.

   1893, Natural Science: A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress, volume 3, page 185

   1 more example

   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.

   1848, John Lindley, A notice of some species of Rhododendron inhabiting Borneo: Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, volume 3, page 88

   Synonyms: air plant

2. biologyA 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.)