Mesophytes and Epiphytes

Mesophytes are plants adapted to moderate conditions — neither too wet nor too dry — and represent the most 'ordinary' common land plants, such as maize and hibiscus. Morphologically, they have a well-developed root system with root caps and root hairs, generally aerial, stout and well-branched stems, and typically large, broad, thin leaves of varying shapes. Anatomically, the cuticle on aerial parts is only moderately developed, the epidermis is well formed with stomata generally present on both surfaces, the mesophyll is clearly differentiated into palisade and spongy parenchyma, and vascular/mechanical tissues are fairly well developed and clearly differentiated — in short, mesophytes show none of the extreme, specialised anatomy of xerophytes or hydrophytes, because they don't need to. Physiologically, all normal physiological processes proceed unhindered, though temporary wilting can occur at room temperature if water becomes briefly scarce. A special category, tropophytes, behave like xerophytes during the dry summer season but switch to behaving like mesophytes or even hydrophytes once the rainy season arrives — a seasonal, reversible shift in strategy rather than a fixed adaptation. Epiphytes, by contrast, are plants that grow perched on other plants (their 'supporting plants'), using the host purely for physical shelter and support rather than for water or food — common in tropical rain forests, and represented by orchids, lianas, hanging mosses and money plant. Morphologically, epiphyte root systems are extensively developed into two functional types: clinging roots, which fix the plant firmly to the surface it grows on, and aerial roots, green-coloured roots that hang downward and absorb atmospheric moisture through a spongy tissue called velamen; some epiphyte stems are succulent and develop a pseudobulb or tuber for water storage, leaves tend to be fewer in number and often fleshy/leathery, myrmecophily (an ant-bodyguard partnership) is common in epiphytic vegetation as protection against predators, and their fruits/seeds are typically very small and dispersed by wind, insects or birds. Anatomically, …