Bromeliaceae

Most species here grow as rosettes on branches and trunks, their leaf bases overlapping tightly enough to hold water. That tank is why bromeliads matter out of proportion to their number: it keeps rainwater metres above the ground and becomes a habitat in itself, used by frogs, insect larvae and the invertebrates that feed on them. Where a canopy carries many of them, the forest is storing water and fauna in the air.

A sterile rosette is easy to see and hard to determine. Identification in the family leans on the inflorescence — its bracts, its colour, the shape and arrangement of the flowers — so a plant photographed out of flower will often stay at the family, however distinctive the leaves look.