What type of moss typically grows on Live Oak and Cypress trees?
Spanish moss Spanish moss Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) 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, French Polynesia and the West Indies and is also naturalized in Queensland (Australia). 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 ("Quercus virginiana") and bald-cypress ("Taxodium distichum") in the lowlands, swamps, and savannas of the southeastern United States from southeast Virginia south
Spanish moss inconspicuous. It propagates both by seed and vegetatively by fragments that blow on the wind and stick to tree limbs, or are carried by birds as nesting material. Spanish-moss is an epiphyte which absorbs nutrients and water through its leaves from the air and rainfall. While it rarely kills the tree upon which it grows, it can occasionally become so thick that it shades the tree's leaves and lowers its growth rate. In the southern U.S., the plant seems to show a preference for growth on southern live oak ("Quercus virginiana") and bald cypress ("Taxodium distichum") because of these trees'