a. Any moss or moss-like plant that grows on trees; applied esp. to certain lichens. b. A moss-like plant of branched form like a miniature tree, as club-moss (Lycopodium).
1611. Florio, Musco,… greene tree mosse.
1681. Grew, Musæum, II. III. iv. 235. The Creeping Tree Mosse of America.
1766. J. Bartram, Jrnl., 27 Jan., in Stork, Acc. E. Florida, 54. We encamped … on a bed of long tree-moss, to preserve us from the … damp ground.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1197. The species [of Usnea] … are often called Tree Moss or Tree Hair.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Tree, or Beard, Moss, a name applied to various Lichens of the genera Usnea, Ramalina, Cornicularia, &c.; also to Lycopodium Selago.
1897–8. Britton & Brown, Amer. Flora, Index, Tree Moss [= The Fir Club-moss, Lycopodium Selago; The Cypress Spurge, Euphorbia Cyparissias].
