Bromeliads, such as this tank epiphyte, are extremely common in neotropical wet and dry forests. One reason for widespread success of this family is due, researchers have found, from Crassulacean acid metabolism, a water-conserving mode of photosynthesis, wherein stomates are closed during daylight but instead open at nighttime, when water loss via transpiration will be lower. Tank epiphytes collect water at the center of the plant, a pool formed by the leaf bases, and in many of these water is absorbed through the surface of the leaf with the aid of special plant hairs (trichomes).

A stalk (inflorescence) of flowers (upper left) shows that this epiphyte is very healthy.

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