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Malignant Mistletoe?

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Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Although our eastern American mistletoe does do harm to our urban trees and our timber industry, the fact that it can only grow on hardwoods spares our pine plantations, and its seeds must be spread by animals. Out west, however, dwarf mistletoe species, in the genus Arceuthobium, grow and parasitize certain conifers including pines. And their ripe fruits actually develop hydrostatic pressure and forcibly eject the seed at speeds up to 50 miles per hour! This seed, just like that of our eastern mistletoe, is covered with sticky viscin which glues it to branches it lands on. It hurts the timber industry as trees with heavy mistletoe infestations have a slower growth rate. Both the evergreen eastern and western American mistletoes take water and nutrients from their host, even when those trees are dormant, robbing them of stored carbohydrates needed for spring growth.

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Amanda McNulty is a Clemson University Extension Horticulture agent and the host of South Carolina ETV’s Making It Grow! gardening program. She studied horticulture at Clemson University as a non-traditional student. “I’m so fortunate that my early attempts at getting a degree got side tracked as I’m a lot better at getting dirty in the garden than practicing diplomacy!” McNulty also studied at South Carolina State University and earned a graduate degree in teaching there.