Desert mistletoe Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Desert mistletoe

Scientific classification
Genus:	Phoradendron
Species:	californicum

The Phoradendron californicum, also known as the desert mistletoe or mesquite mistletoe, is a special plant found in the deserts of North America. It grows in places like southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and parts of Mexico such as Sonora and Baja California. You can spot it in the Mojave desert and Sonoran Deserts, often at high places up to 1400 meters (about 4600 feet) above sea level.

This mistletoe is a "hemiparasite." This means it gets some of its food and water from other plants, but it can also make its own food using sunlight, just like most plants. It doesn't have many leaves and usually attaches itself to desert trees like Cercidium (palo verde) and Prosopis (mesquite).

In the winter, the desert mistletoe grows small, sweet-smelling flowers. After the flowers, the female plants produce red or clear berries. These berries are a favorite food for a bird called the phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens). When the phainopepla eats the berries, it helps spread the mistletoe seeds. The bird can't digest the seeds, so they pass through its body or get wiped off its beak onto new trees, helping new mistletoe plants grow.

Desert Mistletoe and People
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Desert Mistletoe and People

The desert mistletoe has many names depending on where you are. Some common Spanish names include visco, tojí, and injerto. The Seri people, a native tribe, call it aaxt.

Eating the Berries

The small, colorful berries of the desert mistletoe can be eaten. However, it's very important to know which ones are safe! Native tribes only ate berries from mistletoe growing on certain trees, like mesquite (Prosopis), ironwood (Olneya tesota), or catclaw acacia (Acacia greggii). If the mistletoe was growing on palo verdes (Parkinsonia) or Condalia (desert buckthorn), the berries were considered unsafe to eat.

The Seri people knew the berries were ready to pick when they turned clear. They would spread a blanket under the plant and gently hit it with sticks to make the berries fall. They often ate the fruit raw. The Tohono O'odham people also ate the berries raw. The River Pima would boil and mash the fruit, making it into a pudding-like meal. The Cahuilla tribe gathered the fruits from November to April and boiled them into a paste, sometimes adding a little wood ash.

Important Safety Note

While the berries of some desert mistletoe plants can be eaten, the plant itself contains substances called phoratoxins. These can be very harmful if eaten and can make people extremely sick. It is very important never to eat any part of the desert mistletoe plant unless you are absolutely sure it is safe and prepared correctly. Always be careful and never try to eat wild plants without expert guidance.

Holiday Use

Around Christmas, you might see people selling cuttings of desert mistletoe on street corners in cities like Tucson and Phoenix. Even though it looks different from the mistletoe used in other parts of the world, it has become a local holiday decoration in the Sonoran Desert.