May 18 2008
Spanish Moss
One of the things that makes our area so beautiful is our Spanish Moss. It hangs in the trees and creates a picturesque scene of southern living and lazy afternoons.
Perhaps a better name for Spanish Moss is old man’s beard because it’s neither Spanish nor is it moss. Rather it is a stringy gray, rootless herb that drapes Live Oaks, Cypresses and Gum trees with woolly looking, curly “threads.” The knarled, horizontal limbs of these trees provide the best foothold for the “moss” which slides off spindly pines or bushy palms. Contrary to popular misconception, Spanish Moss does not kill the trees and it is definitely not a parasite. It merely hangs from trees to drink in rainwater, absorb sunlight and take up dust or minerals leaching from its chosen branch. Tiny, special hairs coat the rootless tendrils to sop-up nutrients as weather changes. In dry spells, the thirsty plant goes furry-gray as these hairs open out like doors to catch water. After rains, the doors shut to conserve moisture, and the plant, now 75% water, looks rubbery green.
A well-traveled member of the pineapple family, Spanish Moss ranges from coastal Virginia to Argentina. Here, the plant blooms April-July, its blossoms filling our warm evenings with a delecate fragrance. Miniscule seeds breeze along on hairy “parachutes,” then bounce off the slippery top foliage and tumble to already dea/rotting boughs below. There the moss settles in bark fissures and flourises in the garden of deadwood. Because this naturally occurs on leafless limbs, the plant appears to have strangled the tree. The only damage it may cause a tree is to cover up blossoms or fruits or when its rain-soaked weight causes old, weak limbs to snap.
Growing entirely in the air, sapping nothing from its host, Spanish Moss is called an “epiphyte” or air plant. Deer, wild turkey and horses eat this epiphyte, but it is as a nest bedding that the moss has its greatest value. It makes the home cushy for Owls, Egrets, Mockingbirds, Squirrels and more. Herbalists use it as a tea to relieve rheumatism, abcesses and birth pains. Henry Ford stuffed seats in his 1st model T’s with this treeline upholstery, and early settlers used it to stuff mattresses. When laying on the ground, it can get infested with tiny “no-seeum” bugs, and when settlers used this bug-infested moss to stuff mattresses, the bugs would come out at night. This is where we get the term, “don’t let the bedbugs bite.” Indians also used the moss as diapers, saddles and in other ways; they smoked it to remove any bugs.
