Climbing ferns are a catch all name for several families of epiphytes that grow on large trees, absorbing water and nutrients through their own network of arial roots and the breakdown of leaf matter trapped in their basket shaped leaf bodies. Typical climbing ferns, for example those on Yavin 4, are about 2 metres long, with finely defined green and yellow leaves. These ferns hang from the branches of massassi trees, szechual and cliff faces, trapping moisture and organic material and providing a large number of microhabitats for insects, small birds and other arboreal creatures. The tips of these ferns are also generally edible and many species eat the succulent young leaves. Ferns spread through spores, and the undersides of the leaves of many species are covered in sporangia. As they are usually located high up in trees or on cliffs, this method of propagation is ideal, and when a stiff breeze rustles the fern’s leaves, thousands of spores are released and borne away on the wind, to germinate once they land on a suitable surface.