OF THE CAROLINAS & GEORGIA

Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Monocots: Commelinids: Poales

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Tillandsia usneoides   FAMILY Bromeliaceae   Go to FSUS key



SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Tillandsia usneoides   FAMILY Bromeliaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)

Tillandsia usneoides

SYNONYMOUS WITH Flora of North America

Tillandsia usneoides

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 037-01-001:

Tillandsia usneoides   FAMILY Bromeliaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)

Dendropogon usneoides

 

COMMON NAME:
Spanish-moss, Long-moss


         To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.

image of Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish-moss, Long-moss

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913    pnd_deus_001_lvd

        

image of Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish-moss, Long-moss

JK Marlow    jkm0303b_14

March    Beaufort County    SC

Hunting Island State Park

'usneoides' refers to its superficial resemblance to the common lichen Usnea, per Weakley's Flora (2015).

image of Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish-moss, Long-moss

JK Marlow    jkm0303f_08

March    Beaufort County    SC

Hunting Island State Park

image of Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish-moss, Long-moss

Mark A. Musselman    mam_spanishmosseed051906

May    Dorchester County    SC

Audubon Center at Francis Beidler Forest

Reproduction mainly vegetative, but reproduction by seeds does occur, per Guide to the Wildflowers of SC, 1st ed. (Porcher & Rayner, 2001).

image of Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish-moss, Long-moss

Mark A. Musselman    mam_spanishmossflo051906

May    Dorchester County    SC

Audubon Center at Francis Beidler Forest

Flowers occur during April, May and June, per Guide to the Wildflowers of SC, 1st ed. (Porcher & Rayner, 2001).

image of Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish-moss, Long-moss

Mark A. Musselman    mam_spanishmossfl060109a

June    Dorchester County    SC

Audubon Center at Francis Beidler Forest

The inconspicuous yellowish-green flowers are intensely fragrant at night, per Weakley's Flora (2022).

image of Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish-moss, Long-moss

JK Marlow    jkm181111_5896

November    Williamsburg County    SC

The stems are slender and wiry, the leaves filiform, per Wildflowers of the Eastern United States (Duncan & Duncan, 1999).

image of Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish-moss, Long-moss

JK Marlow    jkm181111_5897b

November    Williamsburg County    SC

Plants in elongate, pendulous festoons, per Weakley's Flora (2015).

image of Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish-moss, Long-moss

JK Marlow    jkm181111_5897c

November    Williamsburg County    SC

Both stems and leaves bear numerous small silver-gray scales, per Wildflowers of the Eastern United States (Duncan & Duncan, 1999).

 

 

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Tillandsia usneoides   FAMILY Bromeliaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Tillandsia usneoides   FAMILY Bromeliaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)
Tillandsia usneoides

SYNONYMOUS WITH Flora of North America
Tillandsia usneoides

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 037-01-001:
Tillandsia usneoides   FAMILY Bromeliaceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Dendropogon usneoides

 

Find by SCIENTIFIC NAME:

1516

Forb
Perennial

Habitat: Branches of trees, especially in swamps, but elsewhere where air humidity is high enough, often even in dry forests (for instance, Tillandsia is abundant on Quercus laevis in an extensive very dry longleaf pine sandhills near Wilmington, NC, which receives frequent fog from the Cape Fear, Brunswick, and Northeast Cape Fear rivers), per Weakley's Flora

Native to the Carolinas & Georgia

Common in Coastal Plain (very rare in lower Piedmont)

map
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.

LEAVES:
Simple
Leaves 2-ranked, gray to silver-gray
Margins entire

FLOWER:
Spring/Summer
Yellowish-green
Flowers are sessile.
Superior ovary
Bisexual

Inflorescence a single flower

FRUIT:
Spring/Summer
Capsule

 

TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!



 


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