Spanish Moss

 

Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usenoides).
Santee National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina. 

Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usenoides), that famous denizen of southern swamps and southern gothic literature, is neither moss nor Spanish. The story goes that early French explorers of North America thought this plant looked like the beards of Spanish conquistadors and the name stuck.  But rather than being a moss, a nonvascular plant in the division Bryophyta, Spanish Moss is a flowering plant in the family Bromeliaceae.  This large family also includes the familiar Pineapple (Ananas comosus).

 Spanish Moss is an epiphyte, a plant that grows on another plant, and in the Southeast it favors Live Oaks (Quercus virginiana) and Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum).  

Spanish Moss.
Santee National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina. 

Spanish Moss is not a parasite draining nutrients from the host tree.  It absorbs all its nutrients from the air, rainwater, runoff from trees or animal waste. Spanish Moss is gray-green in color and can grow in long, hanging skeins that may reach 20 feet length. 

Spanish Moss fruit.
Santee National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina.

In spring Spanish Moss produces small, green flowers that develop into fruits.  The seeds are released by the mature fruit and drift through the air and may land on the branch of a new host tree.  

Northern Parula (Setophage americana)
Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina.

Some animals regularly use Spanish Moss.  A tiny warbler, the Northern Parula (Setophaga americana), builds hanging nests in Spanish Moss and the Zebra Longwing (Heliconius chariphonia), a brilliant butterfly, roosts in Spanish Moss.  

Zebra Longwing (Heliconius chariphonia).
West Delray Regional Park, Florida. 

A persistent legend says Spanish Moss is infested with chiggers (Trombiculidae), tiny arachnids related to spiders.  The larval stage of these mites feed on the blood of mammals, including humans, and cause itchy, red welts.  But chiggers live on the ground or in low growing vegetation, so they only get into Spanish moss when it falls from trees.

Cardinal Airplant (Tillandsia fasiculata).
Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. 

Other bromeliads also live as epiphytes on trees and are commonly called airplants.  Florida with its subtropical climate has a number of these including the Cardinal Airplant (Tillandsia fasciculata).  It has long, pointed leaves growing from the base and clusters of red flowers and is sometimes seen in the same tree as Spanish Moss. 

Spanish Moss.
Santee National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina. 

Spanish Moss is found in the Southeastern and southern United States, Mexico, Central and South America.  It has also been introduced to many tropical and subtropical countries.   Spanish Moss lends a mysterious character to the forests and swamps where it lives.  Since it is a bromeliad, I like to think of Spanish Moss as treebourne pineapples.