Arceuthobium divaricatum is a species of dwarf mistletoe known as pinyon dwarf mistletoe.
Ecology It is native to the southwestern United States and Baja California in Mexico, where it lives in woodlands as a parasite on various species of pine, particularly Colorado pinyon and single-leaf pinyon.
Description This is a small shrub which is visible as a network of scaly brown or greenish stems no more than 12 centimeters long extending above the bark of its host tree. Most of the mistletoe is located inside the host tree, attached to it via haustoria, which tap the tree for water and nutrients. The leaves of the mistletoe are reduced to thin scales on its surface. It is dioecious, with male and female mistletoe plants producing spikes of staminate and pistillate flowers, respectively. The fruit is a sticky berry a few millimeters long which explodes to disperse the seeds it contains several meters away from the parent plant and its host tree.
Taxonomy Arceuthobium divaricatum was scientifically described and named by George Engelmann in 1878. It is classified in the Arceuthobium genus as part of the Santalaceae and has no accepted varieties, but was described as a variety of Arceuthobium campylopodum by Willis Linn Jepson in 1923. Altogether it has three homotypic synonyms.
Table of Synonyms Name Year Rank Arceuthobium campylopodum var. divaricatum 1923 variety Arceuthobium campylopodum f. divaricatum 1935 form Razoumofskya divaricata 1893 species
References
External links Jepson Manual Treatment Photo gallery