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The abundant mistletoe growing around my Atlanta neighborhood is most likely American mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum). A friend told me about an old Southern tradition of shooting American mistletoe out of trees. As recently as 2011 a man was arrested for using his shotgun to get mistletoe from local mall trees - and was surprised it was illegal to do this! Yet mistletoe is not just a holiday decoration or kissing plant with stories of magical powers going back to the Druids. It's also a native keystone species meaning it’s important to the healthy functioning of the ecosystem where it grows. Another name for American mistletoe is oak mistletoe because even though it uses other hardwoods for a host, it is most prevalent on oaks which are the top keystone species in an ecosystem.
Mistletoe is a hemi-parasite because it can make its own food but also parasitizes the trees where the seeds root and get their nutrients from. It only grows 2 feet per year and take decades to negatively impact a tree in any significant way. I can’t remember the phrase exactly, but I read somewhere that mistletoe might not be great for any given tree, but it’s great for the forest. The habitat support value of mistletoe is high and research indicates forests with mistletoe are more biodiverse. I would imagine this also means mistletoe in other ecosystems are more biodiverse - like in Atlanta where it's everywhere!
Mistletoe offers many ecological benefits throughout the year -
• Birds find protection from predators in mistletoe
• Some birds nest in mistletoe - mainly in Western species.
• The name mistletoe means dung-on-a-stick (great trivia information to know...) because of the idea that mistletoe spreads by birds who gobble up the berries. A sticky substance on the berries helps them attach to any tree they land on. Images of mistletoe often have bright red berries, but the American mistletoe which is the native species you might find in the Eastern half of the U.S. has white berries.
• The berries are highly poisonous to people and pets, but wildlife including squirrels, chipmunks and possums love the berries.
• Mistletoe is a host plant to a few hairstreak butterfly species including the great purple hairstreak.
• Mistletoe is a pollinator plant for native bees, flying insects, ants, and beetles.
• There are even insects that exclusively feed on mistletoe.
• When nutrient dense mistletoe leaves fall to the ground, they are important to the forest food because the plant absorbs nutrients from the host tree it grows on.
American mistletoe typically grows high up in the trees. Last week I spied a little bit growing at eye level on the branch of a non-native Kousa dogwood in our right-of-way strip next to our sidewalk.
This is the first time I've seen the translucent (and poisonous!) berries of mistletoe up-close!
I’ve added waterproof address labels to metal garden markers for many of the native plants in my rewilded urban yard but labeling a hanging plant in a tree was a bit trickier. My daughter who has her own graphic design business has an artistic eye for this sort of thing and made a clever seasonal identifier using labels I printed out but didn’t know how to attach to the hanging mistletoe. It fits perfectly with the educational vibe I have going in my yard and will hopefully draw attention and appreciation for a native plant most people don’t get to see up-close growing on a tree or think twice about except during the holiday season.
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