Sept. 2021
Mistletoe
Mistletoes are arboreal parasites of woody plants – sounds scary, doesn’t it? It is true that mistletoes damage trees (to a greater or lesser extent), but they also provide food for birds and even are considered attractive by some people. In our new publication (http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7437.html),
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Broadleaf mistletoe (Phoradendron macrophyllum) is an evergreen parasitic plant that grows on a number of landscape tree species in California.Hosts of broadleaf mistletoe include alder, Aristocrat flowering pear, ash, birch, box elder, cottonwood, locust, silver maple, walnut, and zelkova.
ipm.ucanr.edu
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UCCE Advisor Igor Lacan with colleagues from Marin County (Steven Swain) and Stanislaus County (Ed Perry), review the issues associated with mistletoe, their biology, and management.
We start the PestNote by covering the basics:
- “What kind of a life-form are mistletoes?” They are hemiparasites – they perform their own photosynthesis, but they “steal” water and even sometime some sugar, from the tree on which they are growing.
- “What kinds of mistletoes do we see in California and where?” There are two groups: the broadleaf mistletoes, which grow primarily on broadleaf trees, and dwarf mistletoes, which are more damaging and are found only on conifers. The PestNote covers the identification in more detail (spoiler: it is not difficult!), and discusses the important differences between the two groups of mistletoe, as well as the fascinating lifecycles of the two types of mistletoes.
- “What should be done about mistletoe in a tree?” Well, for that you will have to consult the PestNote 😊! We discuss in some detail the damage that mistletoes can cause, and the options that homeowners and municipalities have in managing mistletoes.
We conclude the PestNote with a brief overview of the ecological significance of mistletoes, a section that is a bit unusual for a “pest-centered” publication, but one that we thought was useful in the context of sustainable management of local landscapes.