Tillandsia usneoides (L.) L.
EOL Text
General: Pineapple Family (Bromeliaceae). Spanish moss is a native, perennial epiphytic herb. It is not Spanish, nor a moss, but a flowering plant. The slender, wiry, long, branching stems (reaching 8m or more) grow as suspended, bluish-gray streamers and garlands draping among tree branches and sometimes telephone lines and fences. The plant and is not parasitic, as is often thought, but attaches itself to trees for support. The plant has no roots but derives its nutrients from rainfall, detritus and airborne dust. The stems and leaves are covered with overlapping silver-gray scales, which are important for absorbing water and trapping dust and nutrient particles. It is thought that these plants may play a critical role in nutrient cycling. The very narrow, linear, awl-shaped leaves (2.5 to 8 cm long) are whitish gray. Numerous, small, solitary blue or pale green flowers with three petals (6 to 8 mm long) grow in the axils of the leaves. The flowers, which bloom for a period of three to four months from spring to fall, form interesting seeds (2.4 to 3 mm) with hairy sails that float on the wind and stick to tree branches.
Distribution: Spanish moss is native to the Southeastern United States and Tropical America. For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.
Habitat: Spanish moss grows on trees in areas of high humidity. It can be found on live oak and pines that border estuaries, rivers, swamps, and along the coastal plains of the Southeastern United States.
Spanish moss may be propagated by seed or by division. The plants are very easy to grow, as they need no soil or transplanting, requiring only warmth and moisture. They are grown in greenhouses or outside in warm climates. The plants need temperature of 70 degrees or warmer in the summer and not less than 60 degrees in the winter. The plants grow well in full sunlight to partial shade. To propagate by division, place divided plantlets on bark slabs in areas with plenty of light and moisture. Mist plants regularly with lukewarm water. Spanish moss rarely blooms in cultivation.
Flowering summer.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=222000404 |
Leaves survive desiccation: Spanish moss
The leaves of Spanish moss absorb water and slow water loss because they are covered in dense scales.
"Almost all the members of the Tillandsia subfamily are epiphytic. The exceptions are a number of thin-leaved species that grow on the forest floor. The epiphytic species mostly have well-developed tanks that function in the same way as those of the epiphytes of the Bromelia subfamily, and once again the roots are for attachment only. Some species of Tillandsia have much-reduced tanks, but Spanish moss (T. usneoides) has gone to the extreme and given them up entirely. It has also given up roots and, with its small leaves and many branches, drapes itself over twigs and branches like some lichens. The surfaces of this curious plant are densely covered with overlapping scales that avidly absorb water when it rains and slow water loss during drought. At times, this Tillandsia dries up almost completely but revives when it rains, so it is a resurrection plant." (Dawson and Lucas 2005:43)
Learn more about this functional adaptation.
- Dawson, J.; Lucas, R. 2005. The Nature of Plants: Habitats, Challenges, and Adaptations. Portland: Timber Press. 314 p.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | (c) 2008-2009 The Biomimicry Institute |
| Source | http://www.asknature.org/strategy/f550ac5152d7af443a9abb9d6b220c74 |
Tillandsia usneoides (commonly called Spanish moss, although it is neither Spanish nor moss) is an atypical angiosperm, a primitive and xerophytic member of the Bromeliaceae. It is native to the coastal plain of the United States from Virginia to Texas and to tropical America as far south as Argentina and Chile. Its distribution may be correlated with major storm paths (Garth 1964). The blue-gray plant consists of a slender stem, up to 25 feet long, with alternating leaves growing chain-like to produce “festoons” (Billings 1904). The leaves are needle-shaped and covered with silver-gray scales. The inconspicuous fragrant flowers, which appear from April to June, are blue or pale green and have three petals. Spanish moss is dependent upon a host species or object upon which to grow. It is typically found on the branches of sparsely foliated or dead deciduous trees in high-humidity environments with soils rich in calcium carbonate (Garth 1964).
Spanish moss can grow from seeds but is typically spread by windblown fragments or from fragments incorporated in birds’ nests. This epiphyte has no roots; it captures all its water and nutrients from rain and dust in the atmosphere. Its vascular system is degenerate: Spanish moss has no functional xylem or phloem, water is absorbed by scales over the entire surface of the plant and every cell of the plant either photosynthesizes on its own or is proximal to a cell that shares resources (Billings 1904). It fixes carbon by Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), an adaptation to arid conditions in which carbon dioxide enters the stomata at night to reduce loss of water in its cells.
Native American tribes traditionally used fibers derived from Spanish moss to weave into coarse cloth for bedding, to cord into rope, and to produce fire-tempered pottery (USDA NRCS 2013). Because the plant accumulates heavy metals, including mercury, it has proven useful in monitoring mercury pollution in urban areas (Malm et al. 1998; Fonesca et al. 2007).
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Barbara Strack, Dana Campbell, BoingBoing, Armchair Taxonomists |
| Source | No source database. |
The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 4
Specimens with Barcodes: 4
Species With Barcodes: 1
Tillandsia usneoides (L.) L.
Distribution
Swampy margins of wet pine savannas (WLPS, VWLPS).
Notes
Infrequent. Apr–Jun . Thornhill 190 (NCSC). Specimens seen in the vicinity: Sandy Run [Hancock]: Taggart SARU 436 (WNC!). [= RAB, FNA, Weakley]
| License | Public Domain |
| Rights holder/Author | No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation. |
| Source | http://treatment.plazi.org/id/FC3BCAD53AFC250A57F47DBE08D40748 |
United States
Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | NatureServe |
| Source | http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Tillandsia+usneoides |
Graybeard, long moss, air-plant, Florida moss, con rape moss, wool crape, old man’s beard, grandfather’s whiskers