Question: We have a mystery for you: There is a weird silvery growth on a super tall tree in mauka Kalihi. I work for Hawaiian Electric Co., (and) all the guys have been asking me to ask you what this plant is — looks like Spanish moss to me. But how in the world did it get up the tall tree? It started small and now is getting really silvery and thick. — JB
Answer: I had to go check this tree. It’s up by the last traffic signal as you go mauka on Likelike Highway. It’s a banyan on the right side of the valley.
Now, are you sure you kolohe guys with your high-lift trucks didn’t go "plant" this up in the tree? I am mystified, too, but you are right about the plant, it is Spanish moss, Tillandsia, which is native to the southern U.S. and was brought to Hawaii by people many years ago. We like this plant and find it pretty and useful.
This plant used to be hard to grow, but now we have a new strain or variety that is way more vigorous and robust and is easy to grow. In my yard, sometimes it grows too robustly and seems to strangle and envelop the tree or bush that I’m growing it on.
After looking at your mystery tree in Kalihi, I noticed a similar tree at just about the same elevation, along Pali Highway near the Old Pali Road junction in Nuuanu. This is also a tall tree, just starting to be draped with Spanish moss.
I think maybe someone put it there, or possibly a bird carried it up there for nest building and it got away, or perhaps the plant has adapted to flower and set seed in Hawaii. Previously this plant reproduced only by seeds.
I would love for readers to tell me how they think the silvery epiphytes got way up in the trees, and any stories about uses for this pretty alien species.
Speaking of aliens, we were always taught in the botanic garden world that these epiphytes, called "air plants," don’t harm or suck nutrients from their host tree. Orchids, bromeliads and ferns are some of the main epiphytic plants in Hawaii.
But I have seen some robust kinds of Tillandsia kill a small branch they were attached to, such as aalii and plumeria.
I now pull off the keiki plants and put them in their own pot and monitor Spanish moss growth. If it seems to be getting too heavy, I take it off and weave it into a lei or use it to decorate a flower arrangement or gift basket.
It has many uses both decorative and functional. It was used for furniture stuffing. Wet it and use it as a scouring pad. And it makes a good top dressing for potted plants.
I’ve been testing is as a slug deterrent, theorizing that the slugs can’t get through the silvery tangled twisty layers to reach the vulnerable plant that you want protected.
It has lots of different names here in the islands. Spanish moss is also known as Dole’s beard, umi umi o Dole, and plant scientists call it Tillandsia usneoides. It is in the Bromeliaceae or pineapple family.
Its native range is from eastern Virginia to southern Brazil. And some call it hinahina, after the silvery beauty of our native hinahina, the flower of Kahoolawe. It makes a pretty and akamai conservation substitute for native hinahina in a lei.
Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.
