Tillies Then and Now: Spanish Moss

Tillandsia usneoides, also known as Spanish Moss, is one of my favorite Tillies. A clump of Spanish Moss is actually a huge congregation of little individuals, growing en masse. A Masse of Moss! Here is my first little bowl of T. usneoides from 2012:

And here it is in 2017. It likes to capture other Tillies, such as this T. intermedia. After a few weeks, it's impossible to untangle the plants, but they seem to do all right together.

Spanish Moss is a natural air filter- it pulls all sorts of junk out of the air, even heavy metals. This makes it very helpful at times like these, when we are in a severe drought, with lots of wildfires spewing ash and smoke into the air. I wish I had enough Spanish Moss to cover the walls of my house! It's being used as a natural bio-filter in Asia, and of course, helps improve the oxygen levels in cities where oxygen is low. Tillies are indeed the future!

Turtle Nests, Sweet Potatoes, and Spanish Moss

This is turtle nesting season, so for us, it means no outdoor lights from dusk till dawn, and for our local university students, it means constant vigilance as they count, mark, and protect the nests proliferating on the beaches. This is always such a great sight to see on a morning beach walk!

In the Throw-It-And-Grow-It Department, the sweet potatoes are doing very well, guarded by my own little Plant Spirit sculptures.

My only regret about living beachside is that Spanish Moss, (Tillie usneoides) can't grow outside here. But my indoor Tilliescape has many square feet of Spanish Moss, busily cleaning our air (it's one of the best air cleaners on the planet), and I go hiking inland to see lovely old oak trees full of Tillies.

Most of my orchids are blooming. Catasetum is a little late this year but coming along (we had a really cold and dark spring), and so is Paphiopedilum, so pictures will be arriving. Here's a no-longer-dyed big box Phal....

I'll be doing a proper Tillie Post tomorrow- in the meantime, I wish everyone a wonderful and wacky Weekend Walkabout!

The Joy of Tillies in Southern Gardens

I love American southern gardens. They are big, languid, humid, and full of Spanish Moss. Yes, you can sweat out every water molecule in your body and still only manage a brief promenade around the bromeliads, but it's worth it.

One of my favorite southern gardens is the Leu Gardens of Orlando, Florida. They have lots of Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides):

This particular Tillie has been used as mattress stuffing for centuries, possibly millenia. It's soft and cushy when dried. But alive, it absorbs all sorts of junk, including heavy metals, from the air. That's why it's being used in living curtains in Asia. Mostly, it's just a beautiful, romantic plant.

I hope you are all enjoying your gardens this week!

Just Some Good Ol' Spanish Moss

I don't shop Black Friday. Seething, angry crowds crazed by greedy delusions of savings is sort of a Hell Realm for me. I stay at home, do a little shopping on the Internet, and play board games with the family like chess and Loteria (Mexican Bingo). Call me an introvert....

Tillandsia usneoides can be either a shy introvert, hiding in a tree trunk, or a showy diva, covering every tree in the bayou with silvery drapes that could fatally entangle Godzilla (now there's an image). It's being used for interior decorating, also, as window screens that filter pollutants and give oxygen. Here's a little bowl of it for you all:



T. usneoides, aka Spanish Moss

 It's got the unwieldy name "usneoides" because it supposedly looks like usnea, or beard lichen. But it is not a lichen at all, it's a Tilly. Its flowers are barely noticeable, and it branches more than pups.



Source: Wikimedia

 Most Tillies don't harm their hosts, and some actually help them. But Spanish Moss can grow so heavily that it can take whole branches down, and block the tree's own photosynthesis. Most trees manage well enough, however. Spanish Moss grows all the way from Virginia, USA, to Argentina. It's a remarkable Tilly.