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.
Species In Genus: +- 240 species: temperate, tropical America.
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.Jepson eFlora Author: Job Kuijt
Reference: Abbott & Thompson 2011 J Bot Res Inst Texas 5:139--141; Kuijt 2003 Syst Bot Monogr 66:1--643
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Phoradendron
Previous taxon: Arceuthobium douglasiiNext taxon: Phoradendron bolleanum