American Mistletoe

Description:

This is the fruit of American Mistletoe, a parasite of shoots of various plants. The common name for this plant is mistletoe, leafy mistletoe, ingerto, Eastern mistletoe, or American mistletoe. Mistletoe is an evergreen, perennial, dichotomous, parasitic flowering plant. Mistletoe derives all of its water and essential elements including nitrogen, and a small portion of its food, from a host tree. Mistletoe is a water and element parasite, not simply an epiphyte. More precisely, it is classified as a hemi-parasite because it manufactures most of its own food, but steals all other essential resources from the tree. Mistletoe has an aerial portion consisting of leaves, stems, and reproductive organs like other flowering plants. Mistletoe has a resource gathering organ (forming a resource exchange interface) which establishes and grows inside a tree twig or branch called a haustorium. Ripe mistletoe fruit is a round pseudo-berry (i.e. a berry formed with some additional expanded flower parts) with a translucent, pearlescent, bright white color. The fruit is 1/6 to 1/4 of an inch in diameter and smooth. The skin of the fruit is leathery and tough with a thick cuticle enclosing a single seed.

Habitat:

This one was growing on a tree at New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam Park near Augusta (Richmond County), GA.