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Value Mistletoe

By SongofJoy
December 12, 2012

Mistletoe has often been considered a pest that kills trees as well as degrading and devaluing natural habitat. The plant has now been recognized as an ecological keystone species, playing "a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community" (Wikipedia).

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frostweed
Dec 11, 2012 6:34 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: josephine
Arlington, Texas (Zone 8a)
Hi Everybody!! Let us talk native.
Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Butterflies Garden Ideas: Master Level Forum moderator
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Charter ATP Member Plant Identifier Birds Cat Lover
It feeds the Great Purple Hairstreak (Atlides halesus corcorani a beautiful butterfly. Smiling

http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/l...
Wildflowers are the Smiles of Nature.
Gardening with Texas Native Plants and Wildflowers.
| @frostweed | Post #335457 (1)
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SongofJoy
Dec 12, 2012 6:10 AM CST
Name: Carole
Clarksville, TN (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Garden Sages Plant Identifier I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Avid Green Pages Reviewer
I helped beta test the Garden Planting Calendar Garden Ideas: Master Level Cat Lover Birds Region: Tennessee Echinacea
I didn't know that. Thanks! Thumbs up
I garden for the pollinators.
| @SongofJoy | Post #335560 (2)
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frostweed
Dec 12, 2012 7:59 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: josephine
Arlington, Texas (Zone 8a)
Hi Everybody!! Let us talk native.
Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Butterflies Garden Ideas: Master Level Forum moderator
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Charter ATP Member Plant Identifier Birds Cat Lover
I have a good amount of Mistletoe on my beautiful Arizona ash and I know they feed on it.
It grows up high and I never see the caterpillars but once in a while we get to see the beautiful butterfly. Smiling
Wildflowers are the Smiles of Nature.
Gardening with Texas Native Plants and Wildflowers.
| @frostweed | Post #335570 (3)
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SongofJoy
Dec 12, 2012 8:14 AM CST
Name: Carole
Clarksville, TN (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Garden Sages Plant Identifier I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Avid Green Pages Reviewer
I helped beta test the Garden Planting Calendar Garden Ideas: Master Level Cat Lover Birds Region: Tennessee Echinacea
Just one more reason to value mistletoe. nodding
I garden for the pollinators.
| @SongofJoy | Post #335573 (4)
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frostweed
Dec 12, 2012 9:02 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: josephine
Arlington, Texas (Zone 8a)
Hi Everybody!! Let us talk native.
Native Plants and Wildflowers Organic Gardener Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Butterflies Garden Ideas: Master Level Forum moderator
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Charter ATP Member Plant Identifier Birds Cat Lover
Mistletoe is also the floral emblem for the state of Oklahoma, I had forgotten about that!!!
http://www.netstate.com/states...
Wildflowers are the Smiles of Nature.
Gardening with Texas Native Plants and Wildflowers.
| @frostweed | Post #335580 (5)
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virginiarose
Dec 12, 2012 11:01 AM CST
Name: Susan
Virginia (Zone 8a)
God is the only thing that matters.
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Garden Ideas: Level 1 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Hibiscus Dragonflies Daylilies
Bee Lover Dahlias Butterflies Hostas Birds Lilies
How does it kill a tree? It just hangs there and not wrapped all around the trunk like Ivy, causing rot. Also, I would like to have some but I don't know how to get it up there. Hilarious!
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Mat.6:28-29
| @virginiarose | Post #335620 (6)
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SongofJoy
Dec 12, 2012 11:37 AM CST
Name: Carole
Clarksville, TN (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Garden Sages Plant Identifier I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Avid Green Pages Reviewer
I helped beta test the Garden Planting Calendar Garden Ideas: Master Level Cat Lover Birds Region: Tennessee Echinacea
Susan, Mistletoe plants are parasitic and take nutrients and water from their host trees. They don't always kill the trees, but sometimes that happens.
I garden for the pollinators.
| @SongofJoy | Post #335635 (7)
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virginiarose
Dec 12, 2012 2:21 PM CST
Name: Susan
Virginia (Zone 8a)
God is the only thing that matters.
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Garden Ideas: Level 1 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Hibiscus Dragonflies Daylilies
Bee Lover Dahlias Butterflies Hostas Birds Lilies
Oh, Jeepers! Sad
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Mat.6:28-29
| @virginiarose | Post #335691 (8)
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LindaTX8
Dec 12, 2012 5:44 PM CST
Name: Linda Williams
Medina Co., TX (Zone 8a)
Organic Gardener Bookworm Enjoys or suffers hot summers Charter ATP Member Salvias Herbs
Bluebonnets Native Plants and Wildflowers Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Forum moderator Purslane Hummingbirder
For a healthy tree, a few mistletoe should be no problem! I've got some on Texas Red Oak and keep hoping those beautiful butterflies will use the one oak where I can reach the mistletoe...no luck, so far! I've heard that in Europe, they use a drug extracted from mistletoe for cancer patients.
I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. E. B.White
Integrity can never be taken. It can only be given, and I wasn't going to give it up to these people. Gary Mowad
| @LindaTX8 | Post #335730 (9)
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SongofJoy
Dec 13, 2012 4:19 AM CST
Name: Carole
Clarksville, TN (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Garden Sages Plant Identifier I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database. Avid Green Pages Reviewer
I helped beta test the Garden Planting Calendar Garden Ideas: Master Level Cat Lover Birds Region: Tennessee Echinacea
That's my understanding as well. It won't harm a healthy tree. We have it around here with few problems. And it is important as a sort of regulator for other living things inhabiting an area.
I garden for the pollinators.
| @SongofJoy | Post #335888 (10)
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