Mistletoe Magic

Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. There are hundreds of species which mostly live in tropical regions.

The name mistletoe originally referred to the species ''Viscum album'' (European mistletoe, of the family Santalaceae in the order Santalales); it is the only species native to the British Isles and much of Europe. A related species with red fruits, rather than white, ''Viscum cruciatum'', occurs in Southwest Spain and Southern Portugal, as well as in Morocco in North Africa and in southern Africa. There is also a wide variety of species in Australia. The genus ''Viscum'' is not native to North America, but ''Viscum album'' was introduced to Northern California in 1900.

The eastern mistletoe native to North America, '' Phoradendron leucarpum'', belongs to a distinct genus of the family Santalaceae.

European mistletoe has smooth-edged, oval, evergreen leaves borne in pairs along the woody stem, and waxy, white berries that it bears in clusters of two to six. The eastern mistletoe of North America is similar, but has shorter, broader leaves and longer clusters of ten or more berries.

Over the centuries, the term mistletoe has been broadened to include many other species of parasitic plants with similar habits, found in other parts of the world, that are classified in different genera and families such as the Misodendraceae of South America and the mainly southern hemisphere tropical Loranthaceae.

Etymology

The word 'mistletoe' derives from the older form 'mistle' adding the Old English word (twig). 'Mistle' is from Common Germanic (cf. Old High German , Middle High German , Old English , Old Norse ). Further etymology is uncertain, but may be related to the Germanic base for 'mash'.

''Online Etymology Dictionary'' claims a similar theory, noting: "The alteration of the ending... is perhaps from a mistaking of the final ''-n'' for a plural suffix after ''tan'' fell from use as a separate word, but ''Oxford'' finds it a natural evolution in West Saxon based on stress."

Groups

Parasitism has evolved at least twelve times among the vascular plants. Molecular data show the mistletoe habit has evolved independently five times within the Santalales—first in the Misodendraceae, but also in the Loranthaceae and three times in the Santalaceae (in the former Santalalean families Eremolepidaceae and Viscaceae, and the tribe Amphorogyneae).

The largest family of mistletoes, the Loranthaceae, has 73 genera and more than 900 species. Subtropical and tropical climates have markedly more mistletoe species; Australia has 85, of which 71 are in Loranthaceae, and 14 in Santalaceae.B. A. Barlow (1983) A revision of the Viscaceae of Australia. ''Brunonia'' 6, 25–58.

Life cycle

Mistletoe species grow on a wide range of host trees, some of which experience side effects including reduced growth, stunting, and loss of infested outer branches. A heavy infestation may also kill the host plant. ''Viscum album'' successfully parasitizes more than 200 tree and shrub species.

All mistletoe species are hemiparasites because they do perform some photosynthesis for some period of their life cycle. However, in some species its contribution is very nearly zero. For example, some species, such as '' Viscum minimum'', that parasitize succulents, commonly species of Cactaceae or Euphorbiaceae, grow largely within the host plant, with hardly more than the flower and fruit emerging. Once they have germinated and attached to the circulatory system of the host, their photosynthesis reduces so much that it becomes insignificant.

Most of the Viscaceae bear evergreen leaves that photosynthesise effectively, and photosynthesis proceeds within their green, fleshy stems as well. Some species, such as ''Viscum capense'', are adapted to semi-arid conditions and their leaves are vestigial scales, hardly visible without detailed morphological investigation. Therefore, their photosynthesis and transpiration only take place in their stems, limiting their demands on the water supply of its host, but also limiting their intake of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. Accordingly, their contribution to the metabolic balance of its host becomes trivial and the idle parasite may become quite yellow or golden as it grows, having practically given up photosynthesis.

At another extreme, other species have vigorous green leaves. Not only do they photosynthesize actively, but a heavy infestation of mistletoe plants may take over whole host tree branches, sometimes killing practically the entire crown and replacing it with their own growth. In such a tree the host is relegated purely to the supply of water and mineral nutrients and the physical support of the trunk. Such a tree may survive as a ''Viscum'' community for years; it resembles a totally unknown species unless one examines it closely, because its foliage does not look like that of any tree. An example of a species that behaves in this manner is ''Viscum continuum''.

A mistletoe seed germinates on the branch of a host tree or shrub, and in its early stages of development it is independent of its host. It commonly has two or even four embryos, each producing its hypocotyl, that grows toward the bark of the host under the influence of light and gravity, and potentially each forming a mistletoe plant in a clump. Possibly as an adaptation to assist in guiding the process of growing away from the light, the adhesive on the seed tends to darken the bark. On having made contact with the bark, the hypocotyl, with only a rudimentary scrap of root tissue at its tip, penetrates it, a process that may take a year or more. In the meantime the plant is dependent on its own photosynthesis. Only after it reaches the host's conductive tissue may it begin to rely on the host for its needs. Later, it forms a haustorium that penetrates the host tissue and takes water and nutrients from the host plant.

Species more or less obligate include the leafless quintral, '' Tristerix aphyllus'', which lives deep inside the sugar-transporting tissue of a spiny cactus, appearing only to show its tubular red flowers, and the genus ''Arceuthobium'' (dwarf mistletoe; Santalaceae) that has reduced photosynthesis; as an adult, it manufactures only a small proportion of the sugars it needs from its own photosynthesis, but as a seedling actively photosynthesizes until a connection to the host is established.

Some species of the largest family, Loranthaceae, have small, insect-pollinated flowers (as with Santalaceae), but others have spectacularly showy, large, bird-pollinated flowers.

Most mistletoe seeds are spread by birds who eat the 'seeds' (in actuality drupes). Of the many bird species that feed on them, the mistle thrush is the best-known in Europe, the phainopepla in southwestern North America, and ''Dicaeum'' flowerpeckers in Asia and Australia. Depending on the species of mistletoe and the species of bird, the seeds are regurgitated from the crop, excreted in their droppings, or stuck to the bill and causing the bird to have to wipe it off onto a branch. The seeds are coated with a sticky material called viscin