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Tillandsia usneoides
Also called Old Man's Beard
In Singapore: Spanish Moss, Old Man's Beard, Long Moss, Black Moss, 松萝凤梨, 老人须 (Cultivated in Singapore)
Spanish moss is an epiphytic bromeliad that drapes from tree branches in warm, humid climates and absorbs water and nutrients through its leaves rather than roots. It is grown mainly for its hanging, grey-green look and needs humid air more than soil.
Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is an epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America (as far south as northern Patagonia), the Southern United States, and West Indies. It has been naturalized in Queensland (Australia). It is colloquially known as "old man's beard" in several places, and known as "grandpa's beard" in French Polynesia. It has the widest distribution of any bromeliad.
Most known in the United States, it commonly is found on the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) and bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) in the lowlands, swamps, and marshes of the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states, from the coast of southeastern Virginia to Florida and west to southern Arkansas and Texas.
Spanish moss's primary range is in the Southeastern United States (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) to Argentina, where the climate is warm enough and a relatively high average humidity occurs. In North America, it occurs in a broad band following the Gulf of Mexico and the southern Atlantic coast. The northern limit of its natural range is Northampton County, Virginia, with colonial-era reports of it in southern Maryland, where no populations are now known to exist.
Tillandsia argentea · Octopus Plant · Tillandsia concolor · Wallisia cyanea · Small ballmoss · Airplants
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Spanish moss by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
