It hangs from live oak trees here in Florida like icicles cling to winter rooflines in Minnesota but, of course, it is not frozen. It also is not moss, but rather a plant that absorbs its moisture and nutrients out of the air, and it is not parasitic to the tree. The plant does harbor lots of “critters” including snakes, spiders, bats, and according to Wikipedia “thousands of arachnids” which would happily crawl onto the bodies of anyone playing with it.
Rumor has it that the name came from the French explorers who thought it reminded them of the hairy Spanish conquistadores. The Spanish thought of it as French hair and probably neither group offered their nomenclature as a compliment. In the end, the French interpretation stuck and so we have it.
By the way, if the Spanish conquistadors were really that shaggy, I wonder if anyone ever considered tying their beards together as they lay about in a drunken stupor on the deck of a boat. It might have been an interesting, if very short lived, amusement.
#spanishmoss #liveoak #conquistadors
Eskildoodle Photos and Feelings 