![]() ![]() Mistletoe, however, continues to use water thus robbing the tree of this scarce resource. In droughts, trees have survival coping mechanisms to minimize the need for water. Although mistletoe rarely kills a tree, it can weaken it. The limbs on which mistletoe grows often become weak and may break off. Mistletoe plants can be very small - a few inches across - or several feet across. The plant has no roots but sends root-like projections through the tree bark and into the limbs from which it steals the nutrients. The seeds are sticky and thus will often lodge in the bark and germinate. Unlike plants such as moth orchids (Phalaenopsis species) that are epiphytic - meaning that they attach themselves to other plants to grow, but get their nutrients from other sources - parasitic plants like mistletoe grow on the host plant and rob water and nutrients from it.īirds eat and disperse the seeds either in their excrement as they fly from tree to tree or by dropping the seed as they eat the pulp surrounding it. ![]() The botanical name of the mistletoe commonly used as an ornament is Phoradendron flavescens or P. It is a parasitic plant that is evergreen with female plants having berries. ![]() But what is it? Mistletoe is the common name for many different plants that grow around the world. Now mistletoe is all around us growing in trees all over town. Little, if any, mistletoe grew here when I was a child. In winter, when leaves are off the trees, do you see green foliage in some trees? What is it? Mistletoe. ![]()
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