Other trees besides the Coast Redwood can also be hosts for epiphytes. The sitka spruce, itself a potential epiphyte, can host epiphytes of its own. The largest plants that have been found growing epiphytically on sitka are ferns, while the majority of the epiphytes are smaller, non-vascular plants such as lichens, mosses and liverworts. I personally (and probably you as well) have also seen mosses and lichens growing on plenty of trees besides the two mentioned here and hope that future research will shine a light upon those other trees and their epiphytic communities.

As important as other epiphyte communities are, the redwood epiphyte community dwarfs all North American competitors in terms of diversity and complexity. The forest within the canopy increases the biodiversity of the redwood forest, the density of available habitat and challenges certain assumptions we have when it comes to managing the forest. If we are to maintain the biodiversity of redwood forests we need to take the epiphyte community into consideration. We also need to modify our approach to studying the community to better understand the forest within the canopy, 100+ feet above the ground. California is proud of the redwoods and should be doubly proud of their unique epiphyte communities.