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 Reference: Abbott & Thompson 2011 J Bot Res Inst Texas 5:139--141; Kuijt 2003 Syst Bot Monogr 66:1--643
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.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
MAP LEGEND View all CCH records All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).
