The term cereus is used to describe cacti with very elongated bodies, including columnar growth cacti and epiphytic cacti.
They are found in diverse plant species, including epiphytes such as orchids, tropical coastal swamp trees such as mangroves, the resourceful banyan trees, the warm-temperate rainforest rātā (Metrosideros robusta) and pōhutukawa (M. excelsa) trees of New Zealand and vines like Common Ivy (Hedera helix) and poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans).
The site is described by Natural Resources Wales as containing: "Six contiguous ancient semi-natural woodlands situated on the steep slopes of the south side of the Gwaun Valley sub-glacial meltwater channel. The rich epiphytic lichen flora is of national importance, featuring many old forest species. Several notable woodland plants and invertebrates occur. Dormice are also present."
Tawa can also support significant epiphyte gardens in their canopies, which are one of the few habitats known to be frequented by the enigmatic, arboreal striped skink.
The knowledge of the existence of B. kupense is learned only by a singular epiphyte on one small, cultivated mango tree (Mangifera indica), in a private garden in Nyasoso (at elev. 830 m), Mount Kupe.
Although the distribution of B. porphyrostachys is widespread; from Southern Nigeria (in Okuma, Sapoba and Usonigbe Forest Reserves, and in Calabar) to Cameroon (specifically on Mount Cameroon) and Congo-Brazzaville; it is found only sporadically, as either an epiphyte, or a lithophyte (on lava rock).
It's a Pseudobulb epiphyte, that is, a plant which storage organ is derived from the part of a stem between two leaf nodes and that grows upon another plant (generally a tree) in a non-parasitically way.
Its varieties can be found in wildly varying habitats as an epiphyte (on branches of rainforest trees) or a lithophyte (on sandstone in open forest) in a continuous distribution along the east coast of Australia and in distinct populations along the Tropic of Capricorn.
Like the ergot alkaloids in some monocot plants, the ergoline alkaloids found in the plant Ipomoea asarifolia (Convolvulaceae) are produced by a seed-transmitted epiphytic clavicipitaceous fungus.
The food of this species is nectar, taken from a variety of small flowers, including epiphytic Ericaceae and bromeliads.
The young tree often colonizes amongst other epiphytes like Collospermum and Astelia high in the forest canopy, before growing aerial roots down the trunk of its host.
Along the trail there is a side path of 200 feet that leads to a grove of maple trees covered with epiphytic spikemoss (the "Hall of Mosses").
Bartlett's rātā grows to a height of up to thirty metres, usually beginning life as a hemi-epiphyte on taraire (Beilschmiedia tarairi), pūriri (Vitex lucens), rewarewa (Knightia excelsa) or tree ferns (Cyathea spp.).
Today the gardens claim to contain more than 2,000 plant varieties, with approximately 225 types of flowering plants, including 100 species of fruit trees; and over 2,300 orchids, said to be one of the world's largest collections of Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis, Epiphytes, Oncidium, and Cattleya orchids.
The garden also contains two greenhouses with tropical and subtropical species, with many succulents and epiphytes including Begonia, Orchidaceae, and Tillandsia, as well as Cinnamomum camphora, Kalanchoe beharensis, Nepenthes mirabilis, Piper nigrum, Stanhopea tigrina, etc.
They preserve various threatened plants of Bourgogne, and also contain a range of tropical and sub-tropical genera such as Psilotum and Lycopodium, tropical aquatics such as Eichhornia and Salvinia, carnivorous plants including Sarracenia and Darlingtonia, and epiphytes including Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae.
When observed the birds were feeding in a fruiting epiphytic mistletoe that was parasitising a large Koompassia excelsa tree.
There its habitat is a patchy mix containing primary forest (e.g. high Iriartea deltoidea palm woods), wet premontane secondary forest dominated e.g. by Elaeagia (Rubiaceae) and with abundant epiphytes and hemiepiphytes such as Clusiaceae, former clearings overgrown with shrubs, and fresh forest edges.
Males feed in the canopy, where their food plants include epiphytic Ericaceae and bromeliads, and defend flowers and scrubs in their feeding territories.
The food of this species is nectar, taken from a variety of small flowers, including epiphytic Ericaceae.