Definition

Noun 1. A common climbing vine of eastern North America: Refers to a plant (Clematis virginiana) that grows over other plants and produces many clusters of small, creamy-white flowers. 2. A vigorous deciduous climber of Europe and Asia: Refers to a plant (Clematis vitalba) with panicles of fragrant greenish-white flowers in summer and autumn. 3. A type of Spanish moss: Refers to an epiphytic plant (Tillandsia usneoides) forming dense, greyish-green, hair-like strands that hang from trees, found in the southeastern United States, West Indies, and South America.

Examples

• The fence was completely covered in old man's beard, covered with a froth of white blooms.
• In the autumn, the old man's beard vine produces fluffy seed heads.
• The ancient oak trees were draped with old man's beard, giving the forest a mysterious appearance.

Advanced Usage

• The term is primarily used as a common name for specific plants in horticultural, botanical, or descriptive natural contexts.
• It can be used metaphorically to describe anything resembling the long, grey, hanging strands of the plant, such as certain types of lichen or even thick cobwebs.

Variants and Related Words

• Clematis virginiana: The scientific name for the North American vine species.
• Clematis vitalba: The scientific name for the European/Asian vine species (also commonly called "traveller's joy").
• Tillandsia usneoides: The scientific name for the Spanish moss/air plant species.
• Spanish moss: A more common name for the epiphytic .

Synonyms

• For the vines: Virgin's bower, traveller's joy, wild clematis.
• For the epiphyte: Spanish moss, greybeard, air plant.

Related Phrases

• Bearded like the old man's beard: A descriptive phrase (though not a fixed idiom) emphasizing a profuse, grey, hanging quality.

Noun

1. common climber of eastern North America that sprawls over other plants and bears numerous panicles of small creamy white flowers
2. vigorous deciduous climber of Europe to Afghanistan and Lebanon having panicles of fragrant green-white flowers in summer and autumn
3. 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