Mistletoe in the Mandala

Jacob Korte - UNT History Major

Today I turned my focus to the mistletoe growing out of the cottonwood that is located in the Mandala. Being an evergreen species the mistletoe has remained green and alive throughout the winter even while the trees it grows on have receded into themselves and into their cells in order to escape the cold weather. From what I learned the other week, mistletoe is a parasitic plant that grows into the tree that hosts it. That gives an appearance that the reason the mistletoe is able to stay alive and live as an evergreen throughout the year is because it just feeds off the tree it is on.

Mistletoe growing from a tree trunk; photo credits here.

My question is, what part of the tree exactly does the mistletoe gets its nutrients from? And, how does it get those nutrients? It appears after doing research that some species of mistletoe will partake in photosynthesis to varying degrees, which can reduce the strain of its feeding off of the host tree. The level of photosynthesis by the mistletoe will cause variability in the color of the leaves, ranging from green or yellow. Green indicates a heavier reliance on photosynthesis, yellow means that the mistletoe doesn’t photosynthesize at all. Mistletoe depends on the host tree for water and mineral nutrients as well as carbohydrates, all of which they take directly from the living tree. Another question I had is, how does mistletoe pick what trees to grow on? I noticed large amounts of mistletoe in two large trees, a post oak and the cottonwood. Also in one of two smaller post oaks, but not the other, it turns out that this depends on elevation, what type of tree it will infect. Another indicator is the maturity of the tree.