All of my life I have been fascinated by Spanish Moss. As a child I lived 35 miles form Natchez, a charming Southern town located on a high bank overlooking the Mississippi River and known for its stately ante-bellum homes that survived the Civil War. All through the city were trees dripping with the mysterious moss. I once tried to pick a strand of moss off the trees to put on a tree in our backyard. It always died because we lived too far away from the moisture of the River. Now that I live on the Gulf Coast, I am privileged to have it growing in my own yard which overlooks the Back Bay of Biloxi. It gracefully hangs from the branches of the large Live Oak tree in our front yard.
I never grow tired of its beauty and charm.

For those of you who have never seen Spanish Moss, the photo at the top of this page is what it looks like on the branches of trees.

Spanish Moss is a beautiful, lacy, romantic symbol of the South. It grows in humid coastal areas of the Southeastern United States. You will find it mainly in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida. I've also been told that it grows in Texas and it probably grows in other states, also. It is very dense in bogs and swamps, and is usually seen along rivers and bayous and in Coastal areas where I live.

The above view is typical of Spanish Moss on Cypress trees in swamps.

It is neither a moss nor a parasite; rather, it is a tropical, epiphytic herb which grows on another plant upon which it depends for mechanical support but not for nutrients. An epiphyte, or air plant, has no roots. Having through evolution broken all connection from the earth, it is self-sustaining in its manufacture of food and absorption of nutrients from aerial roots. It just uses trees as its substratum on which to grow.

It belongs to the pineapple family, Bromeliaceae. It's also called "Greybeard" (because it looks like an old man's beard), and Tillandsia, and Florida Moss.

The Spanish Moss's slender, threadlike leaves are connected to tiny strands of black, hair-like fibers that form the core of this plant. The leaves as well as the black core are covered with silvery gray scales.

Believe it or not, Spanish Moss belongs to the group of "flowering plants". Its individual stems bear leaves with tiny, inconspicuous flowers that are yellowish-brown with long narrow sepals and petals that are no more than 1/4" long are are easily overlooked.

The moss turns greenish silver after a rain, and is grayish-silver at other times. It is able to absorb moisture from dew, mist, fog, or rain. It hangs from tree branches (especially Live Oak and cypress trees) in strands up to 20 feet long. I recently saw it growing profusely on some sycamore trees in Ocean Springs, MS.

  It's apparent lack of leaves and flowers is responsible for its popular misconception as a moss.

As an air plant, it depends upon nutrients that are carried by the wind and rain. The green parts of the plant produce simple foods (sugars) by photosynthesis.

Spanish Moss is now used mostly in decorating and flower arranging, although it used to be used in furniture upholstering and for stuffing mattresses.

Spanish Moss on Oak trees amid Magnolia trees.

Although I'm no expert, here are some things I have learned or observed about Spanish Moss:

Spanish Moss photos by Linda S. Nix; © 1999
Cypress photo from "Grolier 1998 Multimedia Encyclopedia"

References:
Swain, Suzan Noguch. Plants of Woodlands and Wayside . Garden City Books, 1956)
Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, 1997 (CD-ROM)
Davis, Bette J. The World of Mosses. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1975.
Hylander, Clarence J. The World of Plant Life. The MacMillan Co, 1947.