I came across this cactus that was fully living off the trunk of a palm tree in Phoenix, AZ back in 2020. Are cactus plants known to parasitize other plants? How else could this have happened?
A bird spread the seed, which sprouted in the fibrous organic matter of the palm.
Were the cactus seed dropped on a living woody plant, it would not likely have been able to grow as large.
Plantsonwu
Pretty cool observation. Not a parasite but an epiphyte. So, epiphytes are plants that grow on trees for structural support. Accidental epiphytes are plants that typically grow terrestrially but ‘accidentally’ have established themselves as epiphytes. This cactus is an accidental epiphyte on the palm tree. It looks like a phoenix palm but phoenix palm and other similar palm species are great hosts for epiphytes and accidental epiphytes. And that’s because once the palms leaves fall, they retain a leaf base scar, which is like a pocket which supports humus and moisture, allowing for epiphytes to establish. There’s growing literature on how palm trees are great phorophytes and various botanical inventories of palm trees showing all the different epiphytes that have been observed growing on palm trees :).
GoatLegRedux
Accidental epiphyte
Ok-Creme8960
Life, uuhhhhh, finds a way.
Spare_Rub9225
Lots of members of the cactus family are epiphytic or are opportunistic epiphytes especially the tropical ones like Christmas cactus and pencil cactus
I’ve seen a massive prickly pear, like with a woody stem 6 inches in diameter and the whole thing was probably 10 feet around, 30 feet up in the crotch of a cottonwood in the bootheel of NM
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A bird spread the seed, which sprouted in the fibrous organic matter of the palm.
Were the cactus seed dropped on a living woody plant, it would not likely have been able to grow as large.
Pretty cool observation. Not a parasite but an epiphyte. So, epiphytes are plants that grow on trees for structural support. Accidental epiphytes are plants that typically grow terrestrially but ‘accidentally’ have established themselves as epiphytes. This cactus is an accidental epiphyte on the palm tree. It looks like a phoenix palm but phoenix palm and other similar palm species are great hosts for epiphytes and accidental epiphytes. And that’s because once the palms leaves fall, they retain a leaf base scar, which is like a pocket which supports humus and moisture, allowing for epiphytes to establish. There’s growing literature on how palm trees are great phorophytes and various botanical inventories of palm trees showing all the different epiphytes that have been observed growing on palm trees :).
Accidental epiphyte
Life, uuhhhhh, finds a way.
Lots of members of the cactus family are epiphytic or are opportunistic epiphytes especially the tropical ones like Christmas cactus and pencil cactus
I’ve seen a massive prickly pear, like with a woody stem 6 inches in diameter and the whole thing was probably 10 feet around, 30 feet up in the crotch of a cottonwood in the bootheel of NM