Keep Wimberley Beautiful

The deciduous trees in our area have not yet put on their leaves. There are two common plants that are visible up in many of the bare tree limbs this time of year: Ball Moss and Mistletoe. Both of these plants are also found in the evergreen trees, but they are not as easy to spot unless you know what they look like.

Ball Moss forms a graygreen ball about 3 to 8 inches in diameter. It is often mistaken for Spanish Moss which also grows up in the trees. Both Ball Moss and Spanish Moss are epiphytes, which means they grow up on other plants and attach with pseudo-roots. These roots hang onto the limbs, but do not actually dig into the plant it is attached to. They are not parasites. The fact that you can find Ball Moss on telephone lines and fences indicates they are independent plants that are not parasites.

You see Ball Moss more frequently on dead limbs but they say that is because it is easier to attach to a dead limb, not because they killed the limb. However, there are botanists who feel that too many Ball Moss can lead to the demise of the tree due to their weight and shading of the tree leaves. On the positive side, the birds like the insects they find in the gray ball.

Ball Moss is a native plant in the bromeliad family. Pineapple is also in the bromeliad family! Although it is called “moss” it is not a true moss. True moss reproduce by spores, but bromeliads have flowers. Thus, Ball Moss have flower structures, although they are not very showy.

The other common plant found up in the trees is Mistletoe. It is an evergreen parasite that forms big green masses up in the trees. It has small flowers that produce white berries around December. I hope you can look up into the bare branches and identify these plants.

Written by Jackie Mattice, Hays County Master Naturalist