[f. Gr. ἐπί upon + φυτόν plant.]
1. Bot. A plant that grows on another plant; usually restricted to those that derive only support (and not nutrition) from the plants on which they grow.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 385. Mosses, lichens … are termed false parasites or epiphytes.
1874. Coues, Birds N. W., 181. The true epiphytes, like the mistletoe, drawing sap directly from the other plants upon which they fix.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 91/2. The Vanilla is an epiphyte, or air-plant.
fig. 1878. M. & Fr. Collins, Vill. Comedy, II. viii. 91–2. She, a fragile epiphyte, unable to exist alone, fell into the hands of an adroit unscrupulous villain.
2. Path. A vegetable parasite on the surface of an animal body.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 144/1. Gruby detected epiphytes in sycosis.
