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Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is an epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico , Bermuda , the Bahamas , Central America , South America (as far south as northern Patagonia ), [ 4 ] the Southern United States , and West Indies .
Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilisation develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores. They are typically 0.2–10 cm (0.1–3.9 in) tall, though some species are much larger. Dawsonia, the tallest moss in the world, can grow to 50 cm (20 in) in height. There are approximately 12,000 species. [2]
Young sporophytes of the common moss Tortula muralis. In mosses, the gametophyte is the dominant generation, while the sporophytes consist of sporangium-bearing stalks growing from the tips of the gametophytes Sporophytes of moss during spring In flowering plants, the sporophyte comprises the whole multicellular body except the pollen and ...
They do not have a functional root system and instead absorb water in small amounts through their leaves via small structures called trichomes. Species of Tillandsia also absorb their nutrients from debris and dust in the air. [17] Any root system found on Tillandsia has grown to act as a fragile stabilizing scaffold to grip the surface they ...
The fern can also reproduce by the division of its rhizomes. On the underside of the blades, the sori (reproductive clusters) are round, discrete, and sunken. Their outline can be seen as raised dimples on the upper surface. They are typically near the outer edge, and occur on all but the lowest pinnae of fertile fronds. Indusia are absent ...
The best-known epiphytic plants include mosses, orchids, and bromeliads such as Spanish moss (of the genus Tillandsia), but epiphytes may be found in every major group of the plant kingdom. Eighty-nine percent of (or about 24,000) terrestrial epiphyte species are flowering plants .
Outcrossing, cross-fertilization or allogamy, in which offspring are formed by the fusion of the gametes of two different plants, is the most common mode of reproduction among higher plants. About 55% of higher plant species reproduce in this way. An additional 7% are partially cross-fertilizing and partially self-fertilizing (autogamy).
The name Usnea is probably derived from the Arabic word Ushnah, meaning moss or lichen, though it may also mean "rope-like". [10] [11] Based on a fossil Usnea found in Baltic amber, the genus is known to date back to at least the late Eocene, about 34 million years ago. [12]