What is "spanish moss"

Spanish \Span"ish\, a. Of or pertaining to Spain or the Spaniards. Spanish bayonet (Bot.), a liliaceous plant ( Yucca alorifolia) with rigid spine-tipped leaves. The name is also applied to other similar plants of the Southwestern United States and mexico. Called also Spanish daggers. Spanish bean (Bot.) See the Note under Bean. Spanish black, a black pigment obtained by charring cork. --Ure. Spanish broom (Bot.), a leguminous shrub ( Spartium junceum) having many green flexible rushlike twigs. Spanish brown, a species of earth used in painting, having a dark reddish brown color, due to the presence of sesquioxide of iron. Spanish buckeye (Bot.), a small tree ( Ungnadia speciosa) of Texas, New Mexico, etc., related to the buckeye, but having pinnate leaves and a three-seeded fruit. Spanish burton (Naut.), a purchase composed of two single blocks. A double Spanish burton has one double and two single blocks. --Luce (Textbook of Seamanship). Spanish chalk (Min.), a kind of steatite; -- so called because obtained from Aragon in Spain. Spanish cress (Bot.), a cruciferous plant ( Lepidium Cadamines), a species of peppergrass. Spanish curlew (Zo["o]l.), the long-billed curlew. [U.S.] Spanish daggers (Bot.) See Spanish bayonet. Spanish elm (Bot.), a large West Indian tree ( Cordia Gerascanthus) furnishing hard and useful timber. Spanish feretto, a rich reddish brown pigment obtained by calcining copper and sulphur together in closed crucibles. Spanish flag (Zo["o]l.), the California rockfish ( Sebastichthys rubrivinctus). It is conspicuously colored with bands of red and white. Spanish fly (Zo["o]l.), a brilliant green beetle, common in the south of Europe, used for raising blisters. See Blister beetle under Blister, and Cantharis. Spanish fox (Naut.), a yarn twisted against its lay. Spanish grass. (Bot.) See Esparto. Spanish juice (Bot.), licorice. Spanish leather. See Cordwain. Spanish mackerel. (Zo["o]l.)

1. A species of mackerel ( Scomber colias) found both in Europe and America. In America called chub mackerel, big-eyed mackerel, and bull mackerel.

2. In the United States, a handsome mackerel having bright yellow round spots ( Scomberomorus maculatus), highly esteemed as a food fish. The name is sometimes erroneously applied to other species. See Illust. under Mackerel.

   Spanish main, the name formerly given to the southern portion of the Caribbean Sea, together with the contiguous coast, embracing the route traversed by Spanish treasure ships from the New to the Old World.

   Spanish moss. (Bot.) See Tillandsia (and note at that entry).

   Spanish needles (Bot.), a composite weed ( Bidens bipinnata) having achenia armed with needlelike awns.

   Spanish nut (Bot.), a bulbous plant ( Iris Sisyrinchium) of the south of Europe.

   Spanish potato (Bot.), the sweet potato. See under Potato.

   Spanish red, an ocherous red pigment resembling Venetian red, but slightly yellower and warmer.
   --Fairholt.

   Spanish reef (Naut.), a knot tied in the head of a jib-headed sail.

   Spanish sheep (Zo["o]l.), a merino.

   Spanish white, an impalpable powder prepared from chalk by pulverizing and repeated washings, -- used as a white pigment.

   Spanish windlass (Naut.), a wooden roller, with a rope wound about it, into which a marline spike is thrust to serve as a lever.

Moss \Moss\ (m[o^]s; 115), n. [OE. mos; akin to AS. me['o]s, D. mos, G. moos, OHG. mos, mios, Icel. mosi, Dan. mos, Sw. mossa, Russ. mokh', L. muscus. Cf. Muscoid.]

1. (Bot.) A cryptogamous plant of a cellular structure, with distinct stem and simple leaves. The fruit is a small capsule usually opening by an apical lid, and so discharging the spores. There are many species, collectively termed Musci, growing on the earth, on rocks, and trunks of trees, etc., and a few in running water.

   Note: The term moss is also popularly applied to many other small cryptogamic plants, particularly lichens, species of which are called tree moss, rock moss, coral moss, etc. Fir moss and club moss are of the genus Lycopodium. See Club moss, under Club, and Lycopodium.

2. A bog; a morass; a place containing peat; as, the mosses of the Scottish border.

   Note: Moss is used with participles in the composition of words which need no special explanation; as, moss-capped, moss-clad, moss-covered, moss-grown, etc.

   Black moss. See under Black, and Tillandsia.

   Bog moss. See Sphagnum.

   Feather moss, any moss branched in a feathery manner, esp. several species of the genus Hypnum.

   Florida moss, Long moss, or Spanish moss. See Tillandsia.

   Iceland moss, a lichen. See Iceland Moss.

   Irish moss, a seaweed. See Carrageen.

   Moss agate (Min.), a variety of agate, containing brown, black, or green mosslike or dendritic markings, due in part to oxide of manganese. Called also Mocha stone.

   Moss animal (Zo["o]l.), a bryozoan.

   Moss berry (Bot.), the small cranberry ( Vaccinium Oxycoccus).

   Moss campion (Bot.), a kind of mosslike catchfly ( Silene acaulis), with mostly purplish flowers, found on the highest mountains of Europe and America, and within the Arctic circle.

   Moss land, land produced accumulation of aquatic plants, forming peat bogs of more or less consistency, as the water is grained off or retained in its pores.

   Moss pink (Bot.), a plant of the genus Phlox ( Phlox subulata), growing in patches on dry rocky hills in the Middle United States, and often cultivated for its handsome flowers.
   --Gray.

   Moss rose (Bot.), a variety of rose having a mosslike growth on the stalk and calyx. It is said to be derived from the Provence rose.

   Moss rush (Bot.), a rush of the genus Juncus ( Juncus squarrosus).

   Scale moss. See Hepatica.

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

Air plant \Air" plant`\ (Bot.) A plant deriving its sustenance from the air alone; an a["e]rophyte.

Note: The ``Florida moss'' ( Tillandsia, many tropical orchids, and most mosses and lichens are air plants. Those which are lodged upon trees, but not parasitic on them, such as the Spanish moss Tillandsia usneoides), are epiphytes.

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 lowlands and savannas of southeastern United States from Texas and Florida north to southern Arkansas and Virginia. It is also native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America and the West Indies as well as being naturalized in Queensland ( Australia) and in French Polynesia.

The plant's specific name usneoides means "resembling Usnea", and it indeed closely resembles its namesake Usnea, also known as beard lichen, but in fact Spanish moss is neither a moss nor a lichen. Instead, it is a flowering plant ( 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. The northern limit of its natural range is Northampton County, Virginia, with unsubstantiated colonial-era reports in southern Maryland where no populations are now known to be extant. The primary range is in the southeastern United States (including Puerto Rico), to Argentina, growing wherever the climate is warm enough and has a relatively high average humidity. It has been introduced to similar locations around the world, including Hawaii and Australia.

The plant consists of a slender stem bearing alternate thin, curved or curly, heavily scaled leaves long and broad, that grow vegetatively in chain-like fashion (pendant) to form hanging structures up to in length. The plant has no aerial roots 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.