Spanish Moss Debate

Savannah, Georgia

I was surprised by the reaction to Spanish Moss. I thought everyone loved it. I come down, of course, on the side of Spanish Moss lovers for the same reason Mary doesn't like it. I like the darkness. I like the spookiness. I like imagining that spirits gather beneath the live oak trees and fly through the moss. I like to imagine that a coven of witches meets under the Spanish Moss-laden limbs.

So I did a bit of research and found it that it's not a moss at all, but rather a bromelaid or air plant, meaning it gets its water and nutrients from the air.

Stephanie was half right about the moss killing trees. It can but not for the reason she may have thought.

Wikipedia writes:

While it rarely kills the trees, it lowers their growth rate by reducing the amount of light to a tree's own leaves. It also increases wind resistance, which can prove fatal to the host tree in a hurricane.

A library in Beaufort, South Carolina, provides this about the name:

Native Americans called the plant "tree hair", which name the French explorers turned to "Barbe espagnole" -- "Spanish Beard" -- to insult their bitter rivals in the New World. The Spanish retorted with "Cabello frances" ("French hair"). "Spanish Moss", a milder variation of the French taunt, has survived. Another common name is "Graybeard."   I am going to look at the Spanish Moss tomorrow as tree hair. I like that.