Part 7
In our forests, we also have another group of plants that are not part of any of the forest's plant communities - lianas and epiphytes. These are so-called off-tiers.
Lianas have thin, weak stems, which in one way or another rise up the trees, carrying leaves to the light. Some lianas are wrapped around the trunk of a tree like a spiral, while others cling to it with mustache, etc. Only when they are high enough do the lianas begin to bloom and begin to bear fruit. The roots of these plants are in the soil, extracting water and necessary nutrients. There are few species of lianas in the forests of the middle zone of the country, and they are not widespread here. An example of this is the hops that many people know.
In the northern coniferous forests, in the taiga, we often find only one liana, the Siberian prince; there are much more lianas in the forests of the Caucasus and the Far East.
In Primorsky Krai, for example, various types of actinidium grow, giving delicious aromatic fruits, lemongrass, Amur grapes, etc. In the Caucasus, special vines are common - Colchian ivy, grape-leaved loumontos, sarsaparilla, etc.
Epiphytes - plants that settle on trunks and branches of trees - also belong to the non-timber vegetation. In our forests they are almost exclusively represented by mosses and lichens.
These small plants sometimes cover the trunks of trees, and often over a long period of time, some of them hanging down from the branches, as if they were slants. Epiphyte plants use wood only as a place of settlement, not as a source of food; they develop on the bark and live their own special lives. These unpretentious plants use mineral "raw materials" to produce the organic matter needed for nutrition. Tree epiphytes are species of mosses and lichens that are completely different from those found in the forest.
Usually the basis of epiphytic population on the trees in our forests are lichens. They play a much bigger role than mosses. Epiphytic lichens, even if they cover the tree trunk, do not cause much damage to the tree itself, do not prevent it from growing. However, many have probably noticed that the lichens are especially lush on oppressed, badly growing trees. The trunks of such trees and even their thin branches are sometimes covered by small uninvited settlers, but the poor growth of trees lichens is not "guilty" at all. This is not the case here; badly growing trees themselves create favorable conditions for the settlement of "tenants": the bark of such trees is slowly renewed, its old outer layers do not fall off for a long time, and lichens have time to grow enough here. A strong tree that grows well, the bark is renewed quickly, and the lichens simply do not manage to fix themselves here; the tree drops them along with the old bark particles.
In the forests there are many dozens of species of epiphytic lichens. Among the most common are xanthoria (wall gold). This lichen looks like more or less rounded orange-yellow "flatbreads", tightly pressed against the bark.
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