LORANTHACEAE 71 



LORANTHACEAE 

 The Mistletoe Family 



The mistletoes are small, shrubby plants, which live as para- 

 sites upon larger, woody plants and inhabit especially the branches 

 of trees. In America the family is represented by two genera, 

 one of which inhabits evergreen trees, the other deciduous trees. 

 The latter, alone, occurs in Illinois. 



PHORADENDRON Nuttall 

 The American Mistletoes 



The American mistletoes are shrubs parasitic on deciduous 

 trees. They have opposite, leathery, flat leaves, usually jointed, 

 brittle twigs, and small, bracted flowers that are dioecious and 

 arise in axillary spikes. Both staminate and pistillate flowers 

 are provided w^ith a generally 3-lobed, globose or ovoid calyx, 

 but have no corolla. The fruit is a globose to ovoid, fleshy 

 berry. 



There are in the neighborhood of 100 species in this genus. 

 All of them are inhabitants of America, but only 6 or 7 grow 

 within the limits of the United States and only 1 grows in 

 Illinois. 



PHORADENDRON FLAVESCENS (Pursh) Nuttall 

 American Mistletoe Mistletoe 



The American Mistletoe, fig. 12, is a small, evergreen shrub 

 that lives as a parasite on many kinds of deciduous trees. Its 

 branching stems, which are glabrous or slightly pubescent, are 

 not often longer than 12 to 18 inches, and its rather stout, 

 terete twigs are brittle, especially at the base. Both branches 

 and leaves are opposite. The leaves are almost sessile, oblance- 

 olate to obovate, and ^ to 2 inches long by ]/^ to ^ inch wide. 

 They are rounded at the tip and narrowed at the base to the 

 very short petiole, and their margins are entire. They are quite 

 thick and smooth at maturity and marked by 3 to 5 nerves. 

 Pistillate plants can be told from staminate plants by the fact 

 that their leaves are dark green. 



The dioecious flowers arise in spikes from the leaf axils, 

 coming into blossom about the last of October. The small 



