usnea

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   any branching gray-green or yellowish lichen of the genus Usnea, often hanging from trees

   Long strands of usnea hung from the spruce branches after the rain.

Borrowed from New Latin Usnea, the scientific genus name, from Arabic ushna, 'moss or lichen.' The traditional name was applied before the modern recognition that lichens are symbiotic associations, chiefly between a fungus and a photosynthetic partner.

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