■532 



LORANTHACEAE 



1. Phoradendron californicum Nutt. California Mistletoe. Fig. 1288. 



Phoradendron californicum Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. II. 

 1: 185. 1848. 



Plants with elongated branching terete stems, 

 4-8 mm. long, rather slender, puberulent, becom- 

 ing glabrous in age, internodes 15-30 cm. long. 

 Leaves reduced to short thin acute scales, not dis- 

 articulating from the stem; spikes axillary, mostly- 

 solitary, 5-10 mm. long, with about 4 joints; fruit 

 reddish pink, fragrant. 



Parasitic on various desert shrubs, but most common 

 on Prosopis and never on conifers. Lower Sonoran Zone; 

 Mohave I>esert, southern California and Arizona south 

 to Sonora and Lower California. Type locality: "moun- 

 tains of Upper California. Parasitic on the trunks and 

 branches of a Stroinbocarptis." 



Pharadendron californicum distans Trel. Monogr. 

 Phoradendron, 21, 1916. Differs from the type in its 

 elongated fruiting spikes with distinctly separated whorls 

 of fruit. Perhaps only a form having a similar range and 

 occurring on the same hosts. 



2, Phoradendon libocedri (Engelm.) Howell.. 

 Libocedrus Mistletoe. Fig. 1289. 



Phoradendron junipcrinum libocedri Engelm. in S. Wats. Bot. 



Calif. 2: 105. 1880. 

 Phoradendron libocedri Howell Fl. N. W. Am. 1 : 608. 1902. 



Plants much branched, pendent, yellowish green, 3-5 

 cm. long, glabrous, the branches somewhat quadrangular, 

 the internodes 10-15 mm. long, cellular-granulated. 

 Leaves reduced to scales, thick, half -ovate, obtuse, about 

 1 mm. long, obscurely restricted at base; spikes solitary, 

 2-3 mm. long, 1-jointed, scales and calyx-lobes sparsely 

 short ciliate, otherwise glabrous, fruit straw-colored, 3 

 mm. in diameter. 



Parasitic on Libocedrus: southern Oregon to northern Lower 

 California. Type locality: Duffield's Ranch, Sierra Nevada, 

 California. 



4 



3. Phoradendron ligatum Trel. Con- 



stricted Mistletoe. 



Fig. 



1290. 



Phoradendron ligatiim Trel. Monogr. Phoradendron. 24. 

 1916. 



Plants branched and compact, 15-25 cm. high; 

 yellowish green, glabrous, the branches soinewhat 

 quadrangular, the internodes 10-15 inin. long cel- 

 lular-granular. Leaves reduced to scales nearly 

 semiorbicular, sharply constricted-grooved at base, 

 about 1 mm. long; spikes solitary in the axils, 

 about 2 mm. long, 1-jointed, glabrous except for 

 the short cilia on the scales and calyx-lobes ; fruit 

 not known. 



Parasitic on Sabina; eastern Oregon to southern Cali- 

 fornia, also in the plateau region of northern Mexico. 

 Closely related to the Rocky Mountain P. juniperinum 

 Engelm., from which it differs primarily by the con- 

 stricted bases of the scales. Type locality: Crook County, 

 Oregon. 



