These orange epiphytes were draped over oaks in cloudforest at about 2,200m in Costa Rica. I can't find images of spanish moss with this color on the web. Are they another species of Tillandsia? Or, a filamentous lichen? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, MS
There is a gold or yellow flowering variety of spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides, but I couldn't find any photos to refer to. Since yours is growing on oaks, that's my wild guess. (I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong.) nice photo
It is not only the color. The texture is different. Tillandsia usneoides has the net of wavy descending branches, whereas the plant in the picture has almost straight descending stems with horizontally outcoming short branches. I also was not able to find anything like this on the web.
Some Usnea species have features like this. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7147684@N03/4502227616/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/leerentz/6312682397/