There are about 25,000 vascular species sharing the peculiar habit of rooting in tree crowns rather than on the ground, yet only an occasional epiphyte – the wide-ranging Spanish moss, for example – has attracted much scientific curiosity. Uncounted thousands of animal populations (mostly insects) regularly associate with these plants, sometimes because there are no alternatives for lodging, food, or other critical resources. Vascular epiphytes remain best known to horticulturists and systematists; the how and why of their growth in nature under such novel conditions have been mostly ignored. Other ecological groups such as carnivores, halophytes, mangroves, and parasites have been thoroughly covered in monographs despite their smaller numbers, more restricted distribution, and limited literature base. Also underrepresented is information on epiphyte-dependent fauna and effects on supporting trees. But times are changing. Improved climbing techniques allow extended observation and collection of representative fauna. Portable equipment for measuring such plant phenomena as gas exchange has opened the upper canopy to sophisticated analyses. Clearing land for roads, while destroying woodland, has fostered research in the field; so has establishment of permanent field stations, particularly in the neotropics. Results are heartening; what for many years was only a trickle of papers on nontaxonomic aspects of epiphyte biology and forest canopy fauna now approaches a flood. Three international symposia devoted to epiphytes have been held in just the past four years.