OLD MAN'S BEARD • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Old man's beard

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/oʊld mænz bɪrd/ Listen

Old man's beard

noun

Dense festoons of greenish-grey hairlike flexuous strands anchored to tree trunks and branches by sparse wiry roots; southeastern United States and West Indies to South America. Synonyms: black moss, long moss, Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides.

Vigorous deciduous climber of Europe to Afghanistan and Lebanon having panicles of fragrant green-white flowers in summer and autumn. Synonyms: Clematis vitalba, traveler's joy, traveller's joy.

Common climber of eastern North America that sprawls over other plants and bears numerous panicles of small creamy white flowers. Synonyms: Clematis virginiana, devil's darning needle, virgin's bower.

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Etymology of 'Old man's beard'

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"Old man's beard" Quotes from Famous Books

... children see them as lambs' tails, dangling in twos and threes in the gentle air. They have been growing longer every day since Christmas and the red tips of the female flowers have now begun to appear. In the hedge there are still the remains of old man's beard that, in one light, looks like dirty wool, but, with the sun shining on it, seems at a distance to be hawthorn in the full glory of blossom. Every now and then a crooked caterpillar of down is detached from it by the wind and sails ...

— The Pleasures of Ignorance • Robert Lynd

Words linked to "Old man's beard" : epiphyte, epiphytic plant, black moss, clematis, air plant, genus Tillandsia, Tillandsia, aerophyte