The Black Moor, along with the Red Moor, is one of the larger moors in the High Rhön, whose name, according to tradition, comes from the colour of the original vegetation. The vicar cooperator of Simmershausen, Franz Anton Jäger, a keen naturalist, wrote in his letters about the High Rhoene of Franconia, published in 1803, that the Black Moor was much wetter than the Red Moor. As a result, the red Magellan's Peatmoss (Sphagnum magellanicum), the plant that gave the Red Moor its name and which also grew in the Black Moor, became waterlogged as soon as it germinated, became mouldy and black, thus giving rise to the name of the Black Moor. Even today the name appears apt.