My answer was kind of tongue-in-cheek. I know Spanish moss can get out of hand, but here, in NE Mississippi, Spanish moss is very seldom seen. I grow it as a novelty and also because I was told I could not grow it. I like to experiment! But it does look good on my mounted plants. You should see one of my vandas, who's roots have absolutely taken up residence in a mass of Spanish moss. Really unusual. Also I find that when I drap Spanish moss around/over other, non-tillandsia epiphytes, and the moss grows well, it seems to indicate that (whatever the mounted plants are), the plants do well. Not scientific by any means, but something I have seen over and over.
For those who think Spanish moss is a perasite, it is not. Epiphtes are not parasitic. What damages a tree with overgrowth of Spanish moss is the fact the the moss reduces available light to the leaves, nothing more. Other tillandsias in S. FL and central and S. American also causes damage to trees due to overgrowth.
I agree that in a compost pile, living Spanish moss would break down very slowly. It could possibly still grow on that compost pile for months before finally dying. Even then, dead Spanish moss has really tough filaments that might never break down.
