What is "long 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, black moss, Tillandsia usneoides]