LOEANTHACEJE. 366 



Sierra Nevada. Widely distributed but nowhere common. Mar.- 

 Apr. Fr. July. 



76. LORANTHACE/E. Mistletoe Family. 



Evergreen shrubs, parasitic on trees. Branches diohotomous. 

 Leaves opposite, simple and entire, or often reduced to connate 

 scales. Flowers dioecious (in ours), greenish and inconspicuous, 

 regular, apetalous. Sepals 2 to 5. Stamens as many as the sepals 

 and inserted upon them; anthers 1 or 2-oelled. Ovary inferior, 

 1-celled. Fruit a berry with glutinous endocarp. Embryo straight, 

 in copious endosperm. 



Berry sessile; flowers glolDose; calyx mostly S-lobed or -toothed; anthers 

 2-celled; leaves (in ours) foliaeeous 1. Phoradendeon. 



Berry on recurved pedicels; flowers mostly compressed; staminate calyx 

 S-lobed; pistillate 2-tootlied; anthers 1-celled; leaves scale-like and 

 connate . 2. Eazotimofskya. 



1. PHORADENDRON Nutt. Mistlbtojs. 

 Parasitic on mostly deciduous frees, the stems much branched and 

 swollen at the nodes. Leaves foliaeeous and coriaceous, or scale-like. 

 Flowers sunk in the joints of the jointed spikes, usually several to 

 each scale. Staminate calyx commonly 8-lobed, the anthers sessile 

 on the base of the lobes. Pistillate calyx adherent to the ovary, the 

 3 teeth persistent on the globose semitransparent mucilaginous berry. 

 (Greek phor, a thief, and dendron, a tree.) 



Leaves elliptic to otilong, 3 or 5-nerved. 



Herbage yellowish . 1. P. fiavescens. 



Herbage greenish . 2. P. villosum. 



Leaves narrowly oblong or spatulate, nerveless . . . 3. P. BoUeanum. 



1. P. fiavescens Nutt. Yellow Mistletoe. Foliage yellowish 

 green; leaves orbicular to ovate or narrowly elliptic, obtuse, 3J in. 

 long or less, conspicuously 5-nerved from the base and distinctly 

 petioled; fruiting spikes dense, IJ in. long or less; berries white, 2 

 lines in diameter. 



Interior of California: Putah Creek, on Cottonwood trees (Populus 

 Fremonti Torr.); Pleasant Valley, Solano Co., also on Cottonwoods, 

 many large trees having been killed by the parasite; foothills of the 

 inner Coast Kanges near Vacaville, on Buckeye (.^sculus Califor- 

 nica). Fruiting in Jan. This species, as observed on the Buckeye, 

 reproduces vegetatively. The haustoria spread in the bark, and by 

 buds give rise to numerous plants which often impart a very twiggy 

 appearance to the Buckeye branches. 



2. P. villosum Nutt. Common Mistletoe. Foliage deep green; 

 leaves elliptic, obtuse, 3-nerved, 1 in. long, on short petioles; berries 

 pinkish, IJ lines in diameter. 



Coast Eanges; Solano Co.; Napa Valley; Wild Cat Creek (Contra 

 Costa Co.) and southward. Parasitic on Oaks, especially the Blue 

 Oak (Quercus Douglasii), forming globose or bush-like clusters 2 to 3 

 ft. in diameter. The cluster commonly arises from a single main 



