Wild Lives: Leafy Lodging

This bromeliad, Werauhia sanguinolenta, can grow leaves that are nearly three feet long. Poison-dart frogs often use this plant as a nursery for their tadpoles. Photo: Dong Lin, California Academy of Sciences.
This bromeliad, Werauhia sanguinolenta, can grow leaves that are nearly three feet long. Poison-dart frogs often use this plant as a nursery for their tadpoles. Photo: Dong Lin, California Academy of Sciences.
This colorful species, Guzmania lingulata, uses its bright blooms to attract pollinators like hummingbirds. Photo: Dong Lin, California Academy of Sciences.
This colorful species, Guzmania lingulata, uses its bright blooms to attract pollinators like hummingbirds. Photo: Dong Lin, California Academy of Sciences.


In the wild, Guzmania sanguinea can be an epiphyte (growing on trees or other plants) or a lithophyte (growing on rocks). Photo: Dong Lin, California Academy of Sciences.
In the wild, Guzmania sanguinea can be an epiphyte (growing on trees or other plants) or a lithophyte (growing on rocks). Photo: Dong Lin, California Academy of Sciences.
Many animals make their homes inside the leaf-lined pools provided by bromeliads.

Bromeliads may sound like unfamiliar plants, but most people would recognize at least one of the 2,700 species that have been described – the pineapple. Like the pineapple with its spiky crown of foliage, all bromeliads have leaves that are arranged in an overlapping spiral pattern. In many cases, this pattern creates a water-tight cup at the center of the spiral where rainwater can collect. Many animals use these natural swimming holes as homes or breeding grounds, including poison-dart frogs and midges – the small flies that pollinate cacao trees.