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.[2] 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 to Florida and west to Texas and southern Arkansas

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