American Mistletoe

A Silver Maple, liberally festooned with large orbicular clumps of American Mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum). This is the same plant that is often used as Xmas decor around now, and that people like to kiss under.

Last Friday, December 9, I made a trip to Chesapeake, Ohio and vicinity in Lawrence County. This region is probably the mistletoe epicenter in the Buckeye State and it's quite easy to find there. I'll post something more robust on this very interesting plant later, when time is more plentiful.

Mistletoe forms large ball-shaped masses and is strictly epiphytic. It typically grows high in trees, which makes photographing the tiny flowers and showy fruit a challenge. The Ohio side of the Ohio River Valley represents the northern limits for this widespread species.

A hemiparasitic plant, mistletoe attaches to its host plant's branches via specialized root-like structures known as haustoria. Once embedded, a mistletoe plant can live a long time, probably in many cases only succumbing when its host tree finally falls. This one is on an ornamental crabapple. Most mistletoe occupy native Silver Maple and American Elm, although they can exploit a number of other tree species.

I finally found an opportunity to photograph the reproductive parts of the plant, and it was a challenge. I'll relate that tale when I post about this trip later.

The showy, conspicuous berries (drupes) lure birds, which eat them. The seeds within survive the ride through the avian digestive tract and are expelled on to lofty branches later. There the seeds germinate, tap into the woody tissue, and begin to grow. The tiny greenish flowers are to the right. One must essentially have mistletoe in hand to see those.

More to come!