{"id":7990,"date":"2020-12-17T20:00:51","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T01:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes-2\/?post=did-you-know-mistletoe-grows-on-trees"},"modified":"2020-12-17T20:01:05","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T01:01:05","slug":"did-you-know-mistletoe-grows-on-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/2020-12-17\/did-you-know-mistletoe-grows-on-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Did You Know Mistletoe Grows On Trees?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>In 2019, WFSU discovered a special species of Mistletoe in the trees outside our building. It&#8217;s Latin name is Phoradendron leucarpum, or oak mistletoe (also known as American mistletoe). WFSU&#8217;s Rob Diaz de Villegas explores why it is considered a parasite.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?) <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In late 2019, WFSU-FM News Director Lynn Hatter came into my office. She excitedly told me that there was mistletoe growing in the trees outside. Mistletoe! And here we are in early December, at the right time for a cute holiday plant story. Neither of us knew much about the plant. Was it native? So many Christmas traditions are European, and so wouldn\u2019t the plant be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We went outside the building, to three mostly leafless oak trees by the front parking lot. I photographed a few clumps of green growing in these trees, and uploaded the photos to iNaturalist. These were&nbsp;<em>Phoradendron leucarpum<\/em>, or oak mistletoe (also known as American mistletoe). I looked it up, and this was indeed the species of mistletoe we hang at Christmastime. And yes, it is native, but, oh no- it\u2019s also a parasite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bah humbug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Was this a plant we liked or wanted taken out? I called Leon County-UF\/IFAS Extension Agent Mark Tancig for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.wfsu.org\/blog-coastal-health\/2019\/12\/mistletoe-a-parasite-for-the-holidays-but-maybe-we-like-it-anyway\/\">Click here to read more about what Rob learned about this plant on the WFSU Ecology Blog.<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Mistletoe3-1024x576.png\" alt=\"A close up of a flower\" class=\"wp-image-8006\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Mistletoe3-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Mistletoe3-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Mistletoe3-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Mistletoe3-696x392.png 696w, https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Mistletoe3-1068x601.png 1068w, https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Mistletoe3-747x420.png 747w, https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Mistletoe3.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2019, WFSU discovered a special species of Mistletoe in the trees outside our building. It&#8217;s Latin name is Phoradendron leucarpum, or oak mistletoe (also known as American mistletoe). WFSU&#8217;s Rob Diaz de Villegas explores why it is considered a parasite. Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?) In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[136],"tags":[52,645],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Did You Know Mistletoe Grows On Trees? - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/2020-12-17\/did-you-know-mistletoe-grows-on-trees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did You Know Mistletoe Grows On Trees? - WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2019, WFSU discovered a special species of Mistletoe in the trees outside our building. It&#8217;s Latin name is Phoradendron leucarpum, or oak mistletoe (also known as American mistletoe). WFSU&#8217;s Rob Diaz de Villegas explores why it is considered a parasite. Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?) 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