Can mistletoe affect bonsai?

TN_Jim

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think roots of host tree are their roots; however, being hemi-parasite they have leaves and photosynthesis all their own...

having a tree with mistletoe actually seems kinda rad...clip & grow...maybe little more food and water..
 

Potawatomi13

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until the seed pods began to fall.

No mistletoe personally ever heard of has seed "pods". One parasitic one in Cascades Pines is supposed to be a killer.
Mistletoe you see may not live on your trees. Believe like root myc may be particular of host plant species.
 

AaronThomas

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No mistletoe personally ever heard of has seed "pods
Perhaps “pod” was the incorrect term...they are long green bean looking stalks around 1/4 to 3/4 inches.... they have little holes with tiny seeds in them. I’ll take a few pics tomorrow. Remind me of a Surinam Toad.
 

Shibui

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Any chance this is mistletoe on my juniper? It is a low growing type, but I didn’t think they had air roots.
I can't see anything that looks like mistletoe there. What are we supposed to be looking at? I can't even see any aerial roots? Some junipers have both needle (juvenile) and scale (adult) foliage which may be confusing at first. Many of my junipers also

We do have one mistletoe aver here that has external roots. They run down the outside of the branch and attach in many places to access the sap flow of the host. Most mistletoes attach through a specialised growth called a hastoria. That's the lump you see between the host and mistletoe. They do not have roots as most plants do but connect directly to the active tissues of the host.
Most mistletoes do not have the ability to control moisture loss in hot or dry conditions. It is reported that mistletoe deaths are far higher than the hosts during dry periods as the hosts have the ability to control water to protect themselves.

No mistletoe personally ever heard of has seed "pods".
I also don't know any that produce pods. All seem to produce seed in juicy berries with very sticky flesh that are attractive to birds as the main vector to transport the seeds. The ones I have tried are quite tasty but spitting out the large seeds is difficult due to them being so sticky.
Perhaps “pod” was the incorrect term...they are long green bean looking stalks around 1/4 to 3/4 inches.... they have little holes with tiny seeds in them.
My guess is that this is something else altogether. I'll wait for the pics.
 
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I can't see anything that looks like mistletoe there. What are we supposed to be looking at? I can't even see any aerial roots?
Sorry I don’t have an editor to circle, but just to the lower left of center in the photo there is a reddish cone shape pointing up. One of my bonsai books had a similar growth that was deemed mistletoe and then dig out of the trunk. I’ll look through my books and see if I can find it.
Other than the book I know of at least one other instance of mistletoe in bonsai.
 

Shibui

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I can see the part you are referring to now. Initially thought that was the base of the shoot behind:oops:
It may be a germinating mistletoe seed but too early to tell from that photo.

There is no doubt that bonsai could get mistletoe but it is very rare. Firstly, the birds that typically spread mistletoe seeds prefer higher branches in the canopy of trees so getting seeds on your bonsai is unlikely. Also the local mistletoe species must be compatible with the host species. There are a few generalist mistletoes but most are quite specific to certain groups of plants as hosts and will not grow on other species as hosts. The seeds will germinate on anything solid. I've watched seeds germinate on my wire clothes line and the root attempts to penetrate the wires. Obviously no chance of establishing there. Many seeds also try to establish on the wrong species but soon die if they cannot access the correct tissues in the right host.
If a mistletoe does mange to germinate and establish on a bonsai it is easily pruned off. No need to 'dig it out'. Simply pruning the outer growth should get rid of it.
 

AaronThomas

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Ended up finding this about Desert mistletoe a.k.a. mesquite mistletoe...
https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/plnov99.htm
It appears that the “pods” that had fallen into my pots are in fact stems that held either the male or female portion of the plant. I think what I thought were seeds were actually the remains of the flower. I think the seeds are actually inside the berries of the plant and not in the stem.
FCC17845-96EA-40C4-9FA2-8DD8351F3228.pngCB9094DA-1F79-43EC-AD3E-D4EFF8DDFA6A.png
 

TN_Jim

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Any chance this is mistletoe on my juniper? It is a low growing type, but I didn’t think they had air roots.View attachment 237767
Regarding morphology, I think the images Aaron just posted are typical to what species emerging from host stem also look like. Because of this I do not think your juniper has mistletoe
 
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Regarding morphology, I think the images Aaron just posted are typical to what species emerging from host stem also look like. Because of this I do not think your juniper has mistletoe

Maybe this ground crawling variety of juniper is more prone to air roots than most juniper? There are three or four of them there.. maybe i’ll Let them develop this year and see what happens. It was a twig of a rescue from a brush hogged garden bed some 8 years ago. I’ve been considering chopping back to Mame size, but maybe some air roots could help me sumo it up a bit.
Sorry for the off topic if it is not mistletoe. More examples of mistletoe in bonsai can be found with the search function here.
 

rockm

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Everything I have read (in the past hour) no species of Mistletoe grow air roots. But perhaps a much more knowledgeable person will chime in.
They are parasites using the host tree for resources. The stuff can be common on collected trees. I've noticed it particularly on trees collected in the Southern states. the folks who began collecting cedar elm in Texas a few decades ago used to apply Roundup to the mistletoe on the tree, being careful not to get any on the tree itself or on the soil. If I remember, this had spotty success. Also dead mistletoe on a tree can leave behind veinlike dents in the trunk after the parasite's vascular system dies off...
 
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They are parasites using the host tree for resources. The stuff can be common on collected trees. I've noticed it particularly on trees collected in the Southern states. the folks who began collecting cedar elm in Texas a few decades ago used to apply Roundup to the mistletoe on the tree, being careful not to get any on the tree itself or on the soil. If I remember, this had spotty success. Also dead mistletoe on a tree can leave behind veinlike dents in the trunk after the parasite's vascular system dies off...
Are you referring to the photo or mistletoe in general?
 

AaronThomas

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Southern states. the folks who began collecting cedar elm in Texas
I think this particular Variety of mistletoe prefers the leguminous variety of trees .
Thinking my elms will be Spared....
 

Shibui

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They are parasites using the host tree for resources. The stuff can be common on collected trees. I've noticed it particularly on trees collected in the Southern states. the folks who began collecting cedar elm in Texas a few decades ago used to apply Roundup to the mistletoe on the tree, being careful not to get any on the tree itself or on the soil. If I remember, this had spotty success. Also dead mistletoe on a tree can leave behind veinlike dents in the trunk after the parasite's vascular system dies off...
Strictly speaking mistletoes are hemiparasites. They do take water and nutrients from a host but convert those using their own leaves. Maybe pedantic but all the experts use that term.
Water and nutrient flow into mistletoe is one way. They don't send anything back to the host so glyphosate can indeed be used to kill mistletoe on a live host. Over here there was some trials injecting low doses of glyphosate into the trunks of the host tree on the theory that mistletoe is an accumulator and would collect enough concentration of chemical to kill it while the concentration in the host was low enough to have minimal impact. have not heard of that treatment being common so maybe it did not work either?
I think this particular Variety of mistletoe prefers the leguminous variety of trees .
Most have definite preferences for hosts. There are even a few species that only ever grow on other mistletoes o_O
 
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