What is "black moss"

Tillandsia \Til*land"si*a\, n. [NL., after Prof. Tillands, of Abo, in Finland.] (Bot.) An immense genus of epiphytic bromeliaceous plants confined to tropical and subtropical America. They usually bear a rosette of narrow overlapping basal leaves, which often hold a considerable quantity of water. The spicate or paniculate flowers have free perianth segments, and are often subtended by colored bracts. Also, a plant of this genus.

Note: Tillandsia usneoides, called Spanish moss, long moss, black moss, and Florida moss, has a very slender pendulous branching stem, and forms great hanging tufts on the branches of trees in the Southeastern United States and south to Argentina. It is often used for stuffing mattresses

n. dense festoons of greenish-gray hairlike flexuous strands anchored to tree trunks and branches by sparse wiry roots; southeastern United States and West Indies to South America [syn: Spanish moss, old man's beard, long moss, Tillandsia usneoides]

Black moss may refer to:

• Wila (Bryoria fremontii), a lichen eaten by First Peoples in North America;
• Fat choy (Nostoc flagelliforme), a terrestrial cyanobacteria eaten in Chinese cuisine;
• Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), a flowering plant, particularly after it has been dried for use as stuffing and decoration;
• Numerous species of dark-coloured moss (Bryophyta), possibly species of the genera Grimmia, Andreaea, Syntrichia, or Cinclidotus;
• Black Moss Press, a Canadian literary press founded in 1969.
• A geographical area of moorland between Diggle and Meltham in West Yorkshire