General: Perennial parasitic shrub; stems bluish or bluish-green, smooth, 0.5-3 cm long; segments about 1 mm thick or less; accessory branches, if any, usually in 1 plane, the branches at each node fanlike.
Flowers: Male flowers about 2 mm wide, greenish to yellow, terminal on short, stalk-like joints, usually 2 per node, the buds egg-shaped, the perianth lobes rounded on the backs; female flowers 2 per node, short-stalked.
Fruits: Berries, egg-shaped, about 3 mm long, greenish to bluish, usually 1-seeded, mucilaginous, maturing the 2nd summer.
1. Flowers unstalked or the female ones with stalks up to 1 mm long, usually in pairs at each node; stems over over 2 mm thick and at least 3 cm long; plants parasitic on many genera of Pinaceae.................Arceuthobium campylopodium
1. Flowers terminal on short lateral branches, the branches bearing the male flowers often more than 2 per node; stems scarcely as much as 2 mm thick and usually less than 3 cm long; plants parasitic on Pinus or Pseudotsuga.
2. Secondary branches of twigs lying in the same plane, thus flat and fanlike; stems scarcely 1 mm thick; plants parasitic on Pseudotsuga......................Arceuthobium douglasii
2. Secondary branches of twigs distinctly whorled, not fanlike; stems over 1 mm thick; plants parasitic on Pinus...............................Arceuthobium americanum
Habitat / Range
Parasitic on Pseudotsuga in the montane zone; infrequent in SC and SE BC; S to TX, NM, AZ and CA.
Hawksworth, Frank G., Rebecca G. Nisley, Brian W. Geils, and Delbert Wiens. 1998. Dwarf Mistletoes: Biology, Pathology and Systematics. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.
