Long moss is an air plant that has no roots. LONG MOSS  Hanging from the trees in the cypress swamps of the South are great streamers of long moss. Long moss also drapes the live oak trees on southern lawns. It will use any tree as a perch. It may even hang down from telephone wires.
    Long moss is a plant with long stems, and leaves as slender as threads. Both the leaves and the stems are covered with silvery hairs. These hairs give the plant a gray color in dry weather. In wet weather the green of the stems and leaves shows through the hairs.
    Long moss has no roots. It takes in water through the hairs. It has flowers, but not many people notice them. They are tiny and yellow-green. Its seeds are formed in a very small pod. When the pod opens, the wind blows the seeds away. Some of them find a perch and can start growing.
    Long moss does not harm the trees on which it grows. It takes neither food nor water from them.
    Florida moss, black moss, and Spanish moss are other names for long moss. None of its common names are really good, for this plant is not a moss. Strangely enough, it belongs to the pineapple family.
    Long moss is useful as packing material and as filling for mattresses and overstuffed furniture. Some people make their living by gathering it. For them, money truly grows on trees. (See EPIPHYTES.)
    The Golden Book Encyclopedia. Book 9. LABOR DAY to MATCHES. New York, Golden Press, 1960, p. 826

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