General: Mesquite Mistletoe (Phoradendron californicum) is a parasitic plant that lives on catclaw acacia, honey mesquite, and screwbean mesquite (Acacia, Cercidium, Olneya, and Prosopis). Mistletoe appears as dark clumps among the lighter-green branches of the host plants. The stems are reddish brown, cylindrical, and jointed, and the berries are red (white before ripe) with a dark spot at the tip.

Mesquite Mistletoe is a fairly common component of vegetation communities with catclaw and mesquite, places such as rocky washes and rocky hillsides in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Mistletoe (Viscaceae)

Other Names: Desert Mistletoe

Plant Form: hemi-parasitic plant

Height: to about 3-ft

Bark: smooth (canescent, aging to glabrous)

Stems: green, then reddish brown

Leaves: Tiny (< 1 mm), scale-like

Flowers: Flowers during winter

Seeds: held within red berries, which are eaten by birds and other creatures and some humans.

Habitat: places with catclaw and mesquite

Elevation: to about 4,000 ft

Distribution: California to Arizona, Baja California

Comments: Phainopepla depend on mesquite mistletoe berries for food, but humans can't eat them. Rarely found as a parasite on creosote bush.

Desert mistletoe plants, but not the berries, contain phoratoxins which can lead to death by affecting the heart.