Well, you got me digging, or should I say trimming and I looked it up to find out just how in the heck it got its name after all.

So I tapped Wikipedia and came up with this Folklore, which I found profoundly interesting:

"Charleston, South Carolina, has told the story of a Cuban who came to the area with his Spanish fiancée in the 1700s to start a plantation near the city. Among other features mentioned for the bride-to-be was her beautiful, flowing raven hair. As the couple was walking through the forest to reach the location of their future plantation, they were attacked and killed by an army of the Cherokee tribe, who were not happy to have these strangers on their land. As a final warning to stay away from the Cherokee nation, they cut off the long, dark hair of the bride-to-be and threw it up into an oak tree. As they came back day after day, week after week, they noticed that the hair had shriveled and turned grey and had also spread throughout the tree. Wherever the Cherokees went, the moss followed them and would eventually chase them out of their homeland of South Carolina. To this day, if one will stand under a live oak tree, one will hear the moaning of the woman and will see the moss jump from tree to tree. It defends itself with a large army of beetles." (or chiggers)

♫ PJ ♫

Actually, it's not a fungus. It is a bromeliad, which is the same family as pineapple. I suppose we should be grateful that heavy pineapples aren't hanging from trees overhead -- KABOOM!!

Chigger city for sure. Nice capture.
Russ

Interesting, I did not know that bout spanish moss. Thank you for sharing and lovely picture!