Page:An illustrated flora of the Pacific States (vol. 1).djvu/553

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LORANTHACEAE

1. Phoradendron californicum Nutt. California Mistletoe. Fig. 1288.

Phoradendron californicum Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. II. 1: 185. 1848. Plants with elongated branching terete stems, 4-8 mm. long, rather slender, puberulent, becom- ing glabrous in age, internodes 15-30 cm. long. Leaves reduced to short thin acute scales, not dis- articulating from the stem; spikes axillary, mostly- solitary, 5-10 mm. long, with about 4 joints; fruit reddish pink, fragrant. Parasitic on various desert shrubs, but most common on Prosopis and never on conifers. Lower Sonoran Zone; Mohave I>esert, southern California and Arizona south to Sonora and Lower California. Type locality: "moun- tains of Upper California. Parasitic on the trunks and branches of a Stroinbocarptis." Pharadendron californicum distans Trel. Monogr. Phoradendron, 21, 1916. Differs from the type in its elongated fruiting spikes with distinctly separated whorls of fruit. Perhaps only a form having a similar range and occurring on the same hosts.

2. Phoradendon libocedri (Engelm.) Howell.. Libocedrus Mistletoe. Fig. 1289.

Phoradendron junipcrinum libocedri Engelm. in S. Wats. Bot. Calif. 2: 105. 1880. Phoradendron libocedri Howell Fl. N. W. Am. 1 : 608. 1902. Plants much branched, pendent, yellowish green, 3-5 cm. long, glabrous, the branches somewhat quadrangular, the internodes 10-15 mm. long, cellular-granulated. Leaves reduced to scales, thick, half -ovate, obtuse, about 1 mm. long, obscurely restricted at base; spikes solitary, 2-3 mm. long, 1-jointed, scales and calyx-lobes sparsely short ciliate, otherwise glabrous, fruit straw-colored, 3 mm. in diameter. Parasitic on Libocedrus: southern Oregon to northern Lower California. Type locality: Duffield's Ranch, Sierra Nevada, California. 4

3. Phoradendron ligatum Trel. Con- stricted Mistletoe. Fig. 1290.

Phoradendron ligatiim Trel. Monogr. Phoradendron. 24. 1916. Plants branched and compact, 15-25 cm. high; yellowish green, glabrous, the branches soinewhat quadrangular, the internodes 10-15 inin. long cel- lular-granular. Leaves reduced to scales nearly semiorbicular, sharply constricted-grooved at base, about 1 mm. long; spikes solitary in the axils, about 2 mm. long, 1-jointed, glabrous except for the short cilia on the scales and calyx-lobes ; fruit not known. Parasitic on Sabina; eastern Oregon to southern Cali- fornia, also in the plateau region of northern Mexico. Closely related to the Rocky Mountain P. juniperinum Engelm., from which it differs primarily by the con- stricted bases of the scales. Type locality: Crook County, Oregon.