Phoradendron is a genus of mistletoe

Mistletoe

Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemi-parasitic plants in several families in the order Santalales. The plants in question grow attached to and within the branches of a tree or shrub.-Mistletoe in the genus Viscum:...

s, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

. Traditionally, the genus has been placed in the family Viscaceae

Viscaceae

Viscaceae is a family of flowering plants. In past decades, several systems of plant taxonomy recognized this family, notably the 1981 Cronquist system...

, but recent genetic research acknowledged by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group

The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, or APG, refers to an informal international group of systematic botanists who came together to try to establish a consensus on the taxonomy of flowering plants that would reflect new knowledge about plant relationships discovered through phylogenetic studies., three...

 shows this family to be correctly placed within a larger circumscription of the sandalwood

Santalum

Santalum is a genus of woody flowering plants, the best known and commercially valuable of which is the Indian Sandalwood tree, S. album. Members of the genus are trees or shrubs. Most are root parasites which photosynthesize their own food but tap the roots of other species for water and...

 family, Santalaceae

Santalaceae

Santalaceae is a widely distributed family of flowering plants which, like other members of Santalales, are partially parasitic on other plants...

.

They are woody hemi-parasitic

Parasitic plant

A parasitic plant is one that derives some or all of its sustenance from another plant. About 4,100 species in approximately 19 families of flowering plants are known. Parasitic plants have a modified root, the haustorium, that penetrates the host plant and connects to the xylem, phloem, or...

 shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

s with branches 10–80 cm (3.9–31.5 in) long, which grow on other tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s. The foliage is dichotomously branching, with opposite pairs of leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

; these are fairly large, 2–5 cm (0.78740157480315–2 in) long, green and photosynthetic

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...

 in some species (e.g. P. leucarpum), but minimal in some others (e.g. P. californicum). The plant draws its mineral and water needs, and some of its energy needs, from the host tree. Different species of Phoradendron tend to use different host species, though most species are able to utilise several different hosts.

The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are inconspicuous, greenish-yellow, 1–3 mm (0.0393700787401575–0.118110236220472 in) diameter. The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is a berry

Berry

The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....

, white, yellow, orange, or red when mature, containing several seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s embedded in very sticky juice; the seeds are dispersed when bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s (notably Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing

The Cedar Waxwing is a member of the family Bombycillidae or waxwing family of passerine birds. It breeds in open wooded areas in North America, principally southern Canada and the northern United States.-Description:...

s and Phainopepla

Phainopepla

The Phainopepla is the most northerly representative of the mainly tropical Central American family Ptilogonatidae, the silky flycatchers.-Description:...

s) eat the fruit, and remove the sticky seeds from the bill by wiping them on tree branches where they can germinate.

The foliage and berries of some species are toxic.

Selected species

• Phoradendron aequatoris
  Phoradendron aequatoris
  Phoradendron aequatoris is a species of plant in the Santalaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.-Source:* Montúfar, R. & Pitman, N. 2004. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  Urb.
• Phoradendron anceps (Spreng.) G.Maza – Goldenfruit Mistletoe
• Phoradendron argentinum
• Phoradendron barahonae Urb. & Trel. – Island Mistletoe
• Phoradendron bolleanum (Seem.) Eichl. – Bollean Mistletoe
• Phoradendron californicum
  Phoradendron californicum
  Phoradendron californicum, the desert mistletoe or mesquite mistletoe, is a parasitic plant native to southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Baja California...
  
  Nutt. – Mesquite Mistletoe
• Phoradendron canzacotoi
  Phoradendron canzacotoi
  Phoradendron canzacotoi is a species of plant in the Santalaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montanes.-Source:* Montúfar, R. & Pitman, N. 2004. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  Trel.
• Phoradendron capitellatum Torr. ex Trel. – Downy mistletoe
• Phoradendron coryae Trel. – Cory's Mistletoe
• Phoradendron crassifolium
• Phoradendron densum
  Phoradendron densum
  Phoradendron densum is a species of flowering plant in the sandalwood family known by the common name dense mistletoe. It is native to the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, where it grows in various types of woodland habitat...
  
  Torr. ex Trel. – Dense Mistletoe
• Phoradendron dichotomum (Bertero) Krug & Urb. – Bertero's Mistletoe
• Phoradendron emarginatum
• Phoradendron flavescens
• Phoradendron hawksworthii (DC.) Griseb. – Hawksworth's Mistletoe
• Phoradendron hexastichum (DC.) Griseb. – Tropical Mistletoe
• Phoradendron hieronymi
• Phoradendron juniperinum
  Phoradendron juniperinum
  Phoradendron juniperinum is a species of flowering plant in the sandalwood family known by the common name juniper mistletoe. It is native to the southwestern United States from Oregon to Texas and the northern states of Mexico, where it grows in various types of woodland habitat.This mistletoe...
  
  A.Gray – Juniper Mistletoe
• Phoradendron leucarpum
  Phoradendron leucarpum
  Phoradendron leucarpum is a species of mistletoe which is native to the United States and Mexico. Its common names include American mistletoe, eastern mistletoe, hairy mistletoe, oak mistletoe, Pacific mistletoe, or western mistletoe....
  
  (Raf.) Reveal & M.C.Johnst. (syn. P. flavescens, P. serotinum, P. tomentosum) – Oak (or Eastern) Mistletoe
• Phoradendron libocedri
  Phoradendron libocedri
  Phoradendron libocedri is a species of flowering plant in the sandalwood family known by the common name incense-cedar mistletoe. It is native to western North America from Oregon to Baja California, where it grows in forests on its host tree, the California incense-cedar .This mistletoe is a shrub...
  
  (Engelm.) Howell – Incense-cedar Mistletoe
• Phoradendron liga
• Phoradendron macrophyllum
  Phoradendron macrophyllum
  Phoradendron macrophyllum is a species of flowering plant in the sandalwood family known by the common names Colorado Desert mistletoe, bigleaf mistletoe, and Christmas mistletoe...
  
  (Engelm.) Cockerell – Colorado Desert Mistletoe
• Phoradendron madisonii
  Phoradendron madisonii
  Phoradendron madisonii is a species of plant in the Santalaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montanes.-Source:* Montúfar, R. & Pitman, N. 2004. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  Kuijt
• Phoradendron mucronatum (DC.) Krug & Urban – Needletip Mistletoe
• Phoradendron pauciflorum
  Phoradendron pauciflorum
  Phoradendron pauciflorum is a species of flowering plant in the sandalwood family known by the common name fir mistletoe. It is native to northern Mexico and sections of California and Arizona, where it grows in coniferous forests....
  
  Torr. – Fir Mistletoe
• Phoradendron piperoides (Kunth) Trel. – Piper Mistletoe
• Phoradendron pomasquianum
  Phoradendron pomasquianum
  Phoradendron pomasquianum is a species of plant in the Santalaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montanes.-Source:* Montúfar, R. & Pitman, N. 2004. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  Trel.
• Phoradendron quadrangulare (Kunth) Griseb.
• Phoradendron racemosum (Aubl.) Krug & Urb. – Bigleaf Mistletoe
• Phoradendron rubrum (L.) Griseb. – Mahogany Mistletoe
• Phoradendron tetrapterum Krug & Urb. – Fourpart Mistletoe
• Phoradendron tomentosum
  Phoradendron tomentosum
  Leafy Mistletoe, Phoradendron tomentosum is a plant parasite. It is characterized by its larger leaves and smaller berries than dwarf mistletoe. Leafy mistletoe seldom kill but they do rob their hosts of moisture and some minerals, causing stress during drought and reducing crop productions on...
  
  (Lam.) Griseb. – leafy Mistletoe
• Phoradendron trinervium (Lam.) Griseb. – Angled Mistletoe
• Phoradendron tucumanense
• Phoradendron villosum
  Phoradendron villosum
  Phoradendron villosum is a species of flowering plant in the sandalwood family known by the common names Pacific mistletoe and oak mistletoe...
  
  (Nutt.) Nutt. – Pacific Mistletoe
• Phoradendron wiensii
  Phoradendron wiensii
  Phoradendron wiensii is a species of plant in the Santalaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montanes.-Source:* Montúfar, R. & Pitman, N. 2004. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....
  
  Kuijt