Has anyone ever seen a tree kill mistletoe? I have a wild black cherry tree that has killed at least 5 clumps of mistletoe in the past 2 years.

If the tree is healthy and has enough water and nutrients it should be fine. The mistletoe shows that you have a good population of birds. If you are worried about the tree, give it some extra nutrients and give it water during dry spells.

Hi SeabeeBobR, to All Things Plants!

I've never seen or heard of trees killing Oak Mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum) We had a few Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) in our backyard at our former home but I never noticed Mistletoe growing in those trees. There were a couple of huge masses of it a Sugarberry tree and a current neighbor has a huge mass of it in their big Elm tree. Mistletoe sends roots into the wood of the tree where it retrieves water and nutrients so I wonder if possibly the Mistletoe died because it wasn't for some reason getting the nutrients it needed to survive?

I think that mistletoe needs a particular host tree, depending on what species it is. Maybe your mistletoe is dying because it is not adapted to cherry trees. If you can determine what species of mistletoe you have, you should be able to find out what kind of tree it needs.

There are a few different types of Mistletoe listed in the database: http://garden.org/plants/searc... but I'm only familiar with the American Mistletoe that I linked to in my earlier post. June may be correct that whichever variety you have may not be compatible or adaptable to the Cherry tree.