Arceuthobium
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| iDwarf Mistletoes (Arceuthobium) | ||||||||||||
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The genus Arceuthobium, commonly called Dwarf Mistletoes, are a genus of 46 species of parasitic plants found in North America, Central America, across Asia and the Mediterranean region, occurring in coniferous forests. They all have very reduced shoots and leaves (mostly reduced to scales) with the bulk of the plant living under the host's bark.
In the spruce, fir and pine forests of western North America, the various species of dwarf mistletoe are considered pests as they distort the branches and shoots of the trees that they infest, often causing witch's brooms. Severe infestations can dramatically slow the growth rate of the host tree, and may even kill it.
They are dioecious, individual plants being either male or female. The fruits that follow fertilization are unusual in building hydrostatic pressure internally when ripe and shooting the single sticky seed out at some velocity. Many fail to land on a suitable host's shoot, but just as many succeed, and in this way they are spread through the forests as a pest front.
There are also a number of species from Europe and Asia including one of the smallest in the genus, A. minutissimum that lives on its host, Pinus wallichiana in the Himalaya.
[edit] References and external links
- Hawksworth, F. G., & Wiens, D. (1996). Dwarf Mistletoes: Biology, Pathology, and Systematics. USDA Forest Service, Agriculture Handbook 709.
- Maleshoots of A. campylopodum in California
- Fruiting plant of A. campylopodum on Pine shoot
