Spanish moss

Tillandsia usneoides
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
(unranked):	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Bromeliaceae
Genus:	Tillandsia
Subgenus:	Diaphoranthema
Species:	T. usneoides
Binomial name
Tillandsia usneoides (L.) L., 1762

Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is a flowering plant that grows upon larger trees, commonly the Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) or Bald Cypres (Taxodium distichum) in the southeastern United States.

The plant's specific name usneoides means "resembling Usnea", and it indeed closely resembles its namesake Usnea, also known as beard lichen, but in fact Spanish moss is not biologically related to either mosses or lichens. Instead, it is an angiosperm in the family Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) that grows hanging from tree branches in full sun or partial shade. Formerly this plant has been placed in the genera Anoplophytum, Caraguata, and Renealmia. Its natural range is from Virginia Beach, Virginia in the southeastern United States to Argentina, growing wherever the climate is warm enough and has a relatively high average humidity. It has been introduced to similar locations around the world, including Hawaii and Australia.

The plant consists of a slender stem bearing alternate thin, curved or curly, heavily scaled leaves 2–6 cm (0.79–2.4 in) long and 1 mm (0.039 in) broad, that grow vegetatively in chain-like fashion (pendant) to form hanging structures up to 6 m (240 in) in length. The plant has no aerial roots and its flowers are tiny and inconspicuous. It propagates both by seed and vegetatively by fragments that blow on the wind and stick to tree limbs, or are carried by birds as nesting material.

Ecology

Close-up of Spanish moss

Spanish moss is an epiphyte which absorbs nutrients (especially calcium) and water from the air and rainfall. Spanish moss is colloquially known as "air plant".

While it rarely kills the trees, it lowers their growth rate by reducing the amount of light to a tree's own leaves. It also increases wind resistance, which can prove fatal to the host tree in a hurricane.

In the southern U.S., the plant seems to show a preference of growth on Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) or Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) because of these trees' high rates of foliar mineral leaching (calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus) providing an abundant supply of nutrients to the plant, but it can also colonize other tree species such as Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), crepe-myrtles (Lagerstroemia spp.), other oaks, and even pines.

Spanish moss shelters a number of creatures, including rat snakes and three species of bats. One species of jumping spider, Pelegrina tillandsiae, has been found only on Spanish moss.

Spanish moss in culture and folklore

Spanish moss with open seed capsule in Santee National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina.

Due to its propensity for growing in humid southern locales like Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Eastern North Carolina, southeastern Virginia, South Carolina, east and south Texas, and Alabama, the plant is often associated with Southern Gothic imagery.

In Hawaii, Spanish moss is typically referred to as ʻUmiʻumi-o-Dole, named for Governor Sanford B. Dole's beard. It was introduced to Hawaii in the 19th century, and became a popular ornamental and lei plant. Recently it is occasionally called "Pele's hair" after Pele the Hawaiian goddess. The term "Pele's hair" usually refers to a type of filamentous volcanic glass.

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot wrote a ballad entitled "Spanish Moss".

American Punk Rock band Against Me! has a song titled "Spanish Moss" on their 2010 album White Crosses. "Look into the Spanish moss. Let your mind conjure up old ghosts. Ride your bike through lost Florida streets. Everything we’ve said and done, can be so easily forgotten. You can always change who you are."

American country music singer Brad Paisley uses the phrase 'Spanish Moss' in the chorus of his hit song 'American Saturday Night' (2010), and American country music singer Dierks Bentley refers to it in the first verse of his song 'Every Mile a Memory'.

Human uses

Spanish moss has been used for various purposes, including building insulation, mulch, packing material, mattress stuffing, and fiber. In the early 1900s it was used commercially in the padding of car seats. In 1939 over 10,000 tons of processed Spanish moss was produced. It is still collected today in smaller quantities for use in arts and crafts, or for beddings for flower gardens, and as an ingredient in the traditional wall covering material bousillage.

Spanish moss is also known to have been worn by the women of the Timucua Indian tribe.

It is also used by some as the filling for traditional voodoo dolls.

Gallery

• 

  Spanish moss at Moores Creek National Battlefield in Pender County, North Carolina

• 

  Spanish moss growing on an oak tree.

• 

  Spanish moss in Costa Rica.

• 

  Close-up of Spanish moss.

• 

  Southern Live Oak with Spanish moss hanging from it.

• 

  Spanish moss in Louisiana.

• 

  ʻUmiʻumi-o-Dole with a taro leaf background.

• 

  Spanish moss on a tree in a park in Singapore.

• 

  Spanish moss growing on a tree on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

• 

  Field and trees with Spanish moss (Harry Walker, photographer, Texas, circa 1915-1920)

References

• Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The Plant Book. A Portable Dictionary of the Higher Plants. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-34060-8.
• Tillandsia usneoides (Taxonomic Serial No.: 42371), Integrated Taxonomic Information System
• Timucua#History

External links

Media related to Tillandsia usneoides at Wikimedia Commons

• Spanish Moss: Its History, Nature and Uses -- Beaufort County Library
• Florida Forest Plants
• Florida Spanish Moss: Theory - Does Spanish Moss kill trees?