Description
Spanish moss is gray when dry and light green when wet, and it hangs from tree branches in wind blown festoons that may reach 20 ft (6 m) or more in length. The stems and leaves are slender and curly, and covered with tiny silvery-gray scales that catch water and nutrients (in dust particles) from the air. Spanish moss has no roots. The flowers are inconspicuous, pale green or blue, and fragrant at night. Spanish moss is not related to mosses at all, but is in fact closely related to the pineapple and other bromeliads or "air plants."

Usage
Spanish moss is not a parasite. That is, it does not take nutrients or water from the host tree on which it lives. However, occasionally, Spanish moss can become so thick that it shades the leaves of its host, or, when heavy with rainwater, breaks a branch. Although a tree might be weakened, it would not likely be killed by Spanish moss. However, it is considered a pest in pecan orchards.

Spanish moss makes a great mulch if you're lucky enough to garden within its range. It is often used in decorative floral arrangements and handicrafts. I sent my mother in upstate New York some home grown kumquats packed in Spanish moss and she was more excited about the packing material than my North Florida citrus! Spanish moss is sometimes hung on fences or wires to create privacy screens.

Features
The suffix, "-oides" on many scientific names means "similar to", and in this case refers to the similar looking, but unrelated, lichen, Usnea, or old man's beard, which also is an epiphyte on tree limbs.
For more than two centuries Spanish moss was harvested commercially, and tons of it were shipped to Detroit for use in automobile seats and to other cities in America and Europe for mattress and furniture stuffing. It was said to make the coolest mattresses, an important consideration in the days before air conditioning.

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