In 1939, more than 10,000 tons of the stuff were cured and ginned, bringing $2.5 million into the Depression-poor South.Ĭapable of absorbing water up to 10 times its dry weight, Spanish moss was used by coastal Indians to plug crevices in their bark-made huts and as a summertime roof covering that allowed in fresh air and provided shade. A German visitor to South Carolina in 1825 noted that local merchants were exporting the “Spanish beard” to mattress makers in Europe. “Moss pickers” harvested, ginned, and baled Spanish moss just as they did cotton. Spanish moss has a reputation for housing redbugs (aka chiggers), but there’s good news if you decide to gather it: the itch-inducing critters aren’t usually found in moss growing in higher tree branches but in masses that have fallen to the ground or are living on smaller shrubs. The leaves are covered in cup-like silvery grey scales that collect moisture and nutrients from the air. This rootless tillandsia entwines itself around tree branches with extremely resilient long, thin stems similar in consistency to horsehair. Tillandsia usneoides (which roughly translates to “looks like moss”) is an epiphyte, which grows on a host plant, but does not rely on it for food. Native Americans called Spanish moss “tree hair.” In the 17th century, French explorers dubbed it “Spanish beard” as a derogatory slur against the Spanish, who returned the insult by calling it “French beard.” Early settlers used the name “gray beard.” Yet it was the term “Spanish moss” that survived. Did you know that Spanish moss isn’t a moss at all, but a bromeliad, that-rather fittingly-is cousin to the pineapple, Charleston’s symbol of welcome? And while the plant is a quintessential part of the Lowcountry landscape, draping over live oaks, crepe myrtles, even the occasional pine, there was a time when it also served practical purposes, being used as clothing, mulch, and a construction material.
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