Mistletoe : Phoradendron leucarpum


Kingdom : Plant
   Phylum : Magnoliophyta
          Class : Magnoliopsida
               Order : Santalales
                    Family : Viscaceae
                         Genus : Phoradendron
                              Species : leucarpum (Raf.)

Common name: oak mistletoe

Description:

Dioecious shrubs, parasitic on branches and trunks of flowering trees, rarely shrubs. Stems brittle and highly branched.

Mistletoe, Photo by David Byres Evergreen, leaves leathery, opposite, simple, entire, elliptic, orbicular or oblanceolate 2-13 cm long, 1-4 cm wide.

Flowers small, in interrupted spikes .5-5 cm long. Calyx green, 3-5 lobed (usually 3-lobed), united near base, corolla absent, stamens same number as calyx lobes. Ovary inferior.

Berry white, globose to ellipsoid, 4-6 mm in diameter, 2-3 seeded. Clumps as large as 1-3 feet in diameter may form on the branches of the host plant.


Habitat:

Grows as a parasite usually on trees but may also grow on shrubs.

It usually grows near the top of the host tree.




Distribution:

New Jersey to Florida and west to Texas and north to Illinois.		Leaves of mistletoe, Photo by David Byres



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