[Plant-education] Re: Airplant : Fascinating plants that grow in AIR !!!

[Janice M. Glime]

On Thu, 1 Jun 2006, Charles wrote:

> On Thu, 1 Jun 2006 06:04:22 -0500, "kvaughn" <kvaughn at theinter.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Where can you get these plants?  Are they called bromyliads?  I would like some for my classroom.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------


   The "plants" typically sold in places like Walmart as air plants are 
really animals.  They are polyps in the Cnidaria (some of us remember as 
Coelenterates), Sertularia argenta, also known as air ferns.  They are 
advertised as needing no watering.  Of course the polyps are no longer 
living.  This is the same phylum that includes the animal part of corals.

   However, bromeliads are also air plants and live as epiphytes on trees.

Janice

***********************************
  Janice M. Glime, Professor
  Department of Biological Sciences
  Michigan Technological University
  Houghton, MI 49931-1295
  jmglime at mtu.edu
  906-487-2546
  FAX 906-487-3167 
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