usnea

American  

[uhs-nee-uh] / ˈʌs ni ə /

noun

1. any pale-green or gray, mosslike lichen of the genus Usnea, common on rocks and trees.

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Etymology

Origin of usnea

1590–1600; < New Latin, Medieval Latin < Arabic or Persian ushnah

Example Sentences

Probably because of the absence of usnea moss, with which it pins up its little basketlike nest with its side entrance.

From Time Magazine Archive

A common migrant, traveling with other Wood Warblers, but in summer usually restricted to swampy localities where usnea moss flourishes.

From What Bird is That? A Pocket Museum of the Land Birds of the Eastern United States Arranged According to Season by Chapman, Frank M.

Its habits resemble those of the northern race, but it nests in the hanging, gray tillandsia or Spanish 'moss' instead of in usnea.

From What Bird is That? A Pocket Museum of the Land Birds of the Eastern United States Arranged According to Season by Chapman, Frank M.

The most primitive places left with us are the swamps, where the spruce still grows shaggy with usnea.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 10, August, 1858 by Various

It resembles carbonized horse hair and was called "horse hair usnea" by old Dillenius.

From Synopsis of Some Genera of the Large Pyrenomycetes Camilla, Thamnomyces, Engleromyces by Lloyd, C. G.