Tillandsia usneoides
Habit | bromeliad
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Height: | ⇕ | 24 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 24. |
Width: | ⇔ | 4 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 4. |
Bloom: | ❀ | early summer, mid summer, late summer |
Exposure: | ☼ | shade |
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Features: | ✓ | flowers |
USDA Zones: | 11 to 12 | |
Flower features: | ❀ | blue, purple |
L. > |
Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is a flowering plant that grows upon larger trees, commonly the Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) or Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) in the southeastern United States.
Spanish moss closely resembles its namesake (Usnea, or beard lichen), but in fact it 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.[1] It ranges from the southeastern United States (southern Virginia and eastern Maryland) to Argentina, growing wherever the climate is warm enough and has a relatively high average humidity.
The plant consists of a slender stem bearing alternate thin, curved or curly, heavily scaled leaves 2 – 6 cm long and 1 mm in broad, that grow vegetatively in chain-like fashion (pendant) to form hanging structures up to 6 m in [2] in length. The plant has no aerial roots [3]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.
Spanish moss is an epiphyte (a plant that lives upon other plants; from Greek "epi"=upon "phyte"=plant), which absorbs nutrients (especially calcium) and water from the air and rainfall. Spanish moss is colloquially known as "air plant".
ExpandRead about Tillandsia usneoides in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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Cultivation
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Propagation
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Pests and diseases
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Species
Gallery
Spanish moss in Costa Rica.
Southern Live Oak with Spanish moss hanging from it.
Spanish moss in Louisiana.
Template:OkinaUmiTemplate:Okinaumi-o-Dole with a taro leaf background.
Spanish moss on a tree at a park in Singapore.
Spanish moss growing on a tree on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
- w:Tillandsia usneoides. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Tillandsia usneoides QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)
- ↑ Genus: Tillandsia L., GRIN Taxonomy for Plants, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
- ↑ http://www.floridata.com/ref/T/till_usn.cfm
- ↑ http://www.floridata.com/ref/T/till_usn.cfm