page_title: Spanish moss
section_title: Human uses
hierarchical_section_title: Spanish moss / Human uses
caption_attribution_description: English: Spanish moss at 20x, showing micro structures. Botanical Society of America, 2016.
context_page_description: Spanish moss is an epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon larger trees in tropical and subtropical climates, native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America, the Southern United States, West Indies and is also naturalized in Queensland. It is known as "grandpas beard" in French Polynesia. In the United States from where it is most known, it is commonly found on the southern live oak and bald-cypress in the lowlands, swamps, and marshes of the mid-atlantic and southeastern United States from central Delaware to southeastern Virginia to Florida and west to Texas and southern Arkansas.
  This plant's specific name usneoides means "resembling Usnea". While it superficially resembles its namesake, Spanish moss is neither a moss nor a lichen like Usnea, and it is not native to Spain. Instead, it is a flowering plant in the family Bromeliaceae which grows hanging from tree branches in full sun through partial shade. Formerly this plant has been placed in the genera Anoplophytum, Caraguata, and Renealmia.
context_section_description: Spanish moss has been used for various purposes, including building insulation, mulch, packing material, mattress stuffing, and fiber.  In the early 1900s it was used commercially in the padding of car seats. In 1939 over 10,000 tons of processed Spanish-moss was produced. It is still collected today in smaller quantities for use in arts and crafts, or for beddings for flower gardens, and as an ingredient in the traditional wall covering material bousillage. In some parts of Latin America and Louisiana Spanish moss is used in Nativity scenes.
  In the desert regions of the southwestern United States, dried Spanish moss plants are sometimes used in the manufacture of evaporative coolers, colloquially known as swamp coolers (and in some areas as "desert coolers"). These are used to cool homes and offices much less expensively than using air conditioners. A pump squirts water onto a pad made of Spanish moss plants. A fan then pulls air through the pad and into the building. Evaporation of the water on the pads serves to reduce the air temperature, thus cooling the building.
caption: Spanish-moss under 20x magnification, showing scale-like trichomes.
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