Jepson eFlora Taxon Page

Common Name: MISTLETOE FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, generally +- green, parasitic on aboveground parts of woody plants; dioecious [monoecious]. Stem: brittle; 2° branches generally many. Leaf: simple, entire, opposite, 4-ranked, with blade or scale-like (then each pair generally fused). Inflorescence: spikes or cymes, axillary or terminal; bracts opposite, 4-ranked, scale-like, each pair fused. Flower: unisexual, radial, 2--4 mm; perianth parts in 1 series. Staminate Flower: perianth parts 3--4(7); anthers generally sessile, opposite and generally on perianth parts. Pistillate Flower: perianth parts generally 2--4; ovary inferior, 1-chambered, style unbranched, stigma +- obscure. Fruit: berry, shiny. Seed: 1(2), without thickened coat, gelatinous.

Genera In Family: 7 genera, +- 450 species: tropics, generally northern temperate. Toxicity: All parts of most members may be TOXIC. Note: Sometimes included in Loranthaceae; parasitic on plants in many other families.

eFlora Treatment Author: Job Kuijt
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: MISTLETOE
Habit: Perennial, woody at least at base, glabrous or short-hairy. Stem: generally > 20 cm, not angled, green, less often +- red. Leaf: with blade or < 1 mm, scale-like. Inflorescence: spikes, few- to many-flowered, peduncled; flowers +- sunken into axis. Flower: perianth parts generally 3. Staminate Flower: anthers 2-chambered. Pistillate Flower: perianth parts persistent. Fruit: +- 3--6 mm, +- spheric, 1-colored, white, pink, or +- red, bird-dispersed; pedicel 0. Chromosomes: n=14.

Etymology: (Greek: tree thief)

Unabridged Note: Phoradendron leucarpum (Raf.) Reveal & M.C. Johnst. (Phoradendron serotinum (DC.) A. Gray; name change relative to TJM2 made necessary by ruling of Committee for Spermatophyta) collected in Texas for sale nationally in Christmas trade; other species similarly important locally. Plants at some sites (e.g., Pinnacles National Monument) do not conform to key(s) and/or descriptions, as to hosts and/or morphology (see Kuijt 2003); such problems thus far unsolved, though minimized here.
eFlora Treatment Author: Job Kuijt

Common Name: AMERICAN MISTLETOE
Stem: erect to spreading, green, generally short-hairy, at least at tip, +- glabrous in age; internodes 15--59 mm. Leaf: 15--60 mm, 10--25 mm wide, obovate to elliptic-round, +- petioled or not, +- glabrous to densely short-hairy. Staminate Inflorescence: fertile internodes 2--5(7), generally 25--35-flowered. Pistillate Inflorescence: fertile internodes 2--4(5), 6--15(20)-flowered. Fruit: 4--5 mm, white, pink-tinged or not, glabrous to short-hairy near tip.

Note: 2 other subspecies, in southeastern United States, Mexico.