Take a look at the trunk of this Sabal Palm and you will find two growth forms of Octoblepharum albindum (sorry no common name) moss. The first picture shows what I call the leafy form which you will see at eye level and above on the tree. This form will be thick, bright green and leafy when there is enough rainfall. During drier times it will be pale and dry. The second form can be near the base of the tree. It is white and encrusting. Like ferns, mosses do not grow flowers or seeds, they reproduce by spores. The spores in mosses are contained in small cases held up above on a stalk as can be seen in the third picture. Hanging down next to the moss is Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). Spanish Moss is neither Spanish nor is it a moss. Its name originated as a derogatory reference to the scruffy beards of the Spanish soldiers. It is a flowering plant in the Bromiliad family that includes the airplants. The flowers are tiny and green and the pods split three ways to release the seeds to the wind. Spanish Moss has been widely used as cushion and mattress stuffing; Henry Ford used it to stuff the seats in his first automobiles. People using it that way soon learned to boil it or smoke it first to remove the tiny mites that caused much irritation in sensitive areas. Plants that grow on other plants are called epiphytes. Their seeds or spores lodge in various nooks and crannies, like the rough bark of Oaks and the boots of Sabal Palms, and grow needing only what they get from the rain and dust taking nothing but a little space from the tree itself.
