BioConcepts

epiphytesepiphyta (lat.); épiphytes (fr.); Epiphyten (ger.)

• Plants which grow on other plants; usually restricted to those which derive only support (and not nutrition) from the plants on which they grow. (OED 2011)
  category symbiosis see also entophytes

  1809

  Ordo I. Epiphytae

  Link, H.F. (1809). Observationes in ordines plantarum naturales. Dissertatio prima complectens Anandrarum ordines Epiphytas, Mucedines, Gastromycos et Fungos. Der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin Magazin für die neuesten Entdeckungen in der gesammten Naturkunde 3, 3-42: 5.

  1815

  Épiphytes, epiphytæ, pseudo-parasiticæ. – Qui naissent sur d’autres végétaux, mais n’en tirent point leur nourriture. – [Mousses. etc.].

  Mirbel, C.F.B. de (1815). Élémens de physiologie végétale et de botanique, vol. 2: 586; vgl. 865.

  1823

  Lysiophylli. Pileus viscidulus l. villosus, Lam. liberæ. Epiphyti

  Fries, E. (1823). Systema mycologicum: sistens fungorum ordines, genera et species, vol. 1: 228; cf. vol. 2: 240.

  1861

  Mosses, lichens […] are termed false parasites or epiphytes.

  Pratt, A. (1861). Flowering Plants and Ferns of Great Britain, vol. III: 385.