Flora of North America species comparison

J. Kuijt (2003) used the name Phoradendron serotinum, based on the name Viscum serotinum Rafinesque (1820), not P. leucarpum, which is based on the earlier name by the same author, V. leucarpum (1817). A proposal to conserve the later name (D. L. Nickrent et al. 2010b) was not accepted, thus the name P. leucarpum has priority.

Phoradendron leucarpum has a convoluted taxonomic history, reflecting not only various species concepts but also complex evolutionary and ecological processes. Among the 234 species of Phoradendron, J. Kuijt (2003) recognized subspecies only in P. leucarpum (as P. serotinum). In addition to the typical subspecies from eastern Texas eastward, they are subsp. augustifolium from Mexico, subsp. macrophyllum from eastern Texas through New Mexico and Arizona to California and Oregon, and subsp. tomentosum, with about the same distribution as subsp. macrophyllum but also extending into Mexico. Kuijt noted that in some geographic areas, such as east-central Texas, the putative subspecies show a continuum of morphological intergradation.

A population genetic and morphometric study of this complex was undertaken by A. K. Hawkins (2010). Principal component analyses using the characters that J. Kuijt (2003) considered to be diagnostic of the subspecies, such as leaf size, color, and venation, as well as the type and density of hairs present on young vegetative and reproductive tissues, in addition to host species, did not result in clusters corresponding to the four described subspecies. Moreover, FST analyses of microsatellites showed significant interpopulational differentiation that did not match the subspecies that Kuijt recognized. Because morphological and molecular analyses show that subspecies, at least as defined by Kuijt, cannot be differentiated in Phoradendron leucarpum, no subspecies are accepted here.

Phoradendron leucarpum is the only species of the genus found east of Texas. It parasitizes over 60 species of native and introduced trees, especially Acer, Fraxinus, Juglans, Nyssa, Platanus, Populus, Quercus, Salix, and Ulmus.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Phoradendron californicum, like P. juniperinum, bears only scalelike leaves, but this character has evolved independently in the two species (V. E. T. M. Ashworth 2000). Phoradendron californicum differs by its different hosts (legumes versus conifers) and inflorescences with more than one fertile internode. Molecular data indicate that P. californicum is not part of the acataphyllous Boreales group in the sense of W. Trelease (1916) but allied with cataphyllous tropical species (Ashworth). Varieties and host races have been proposed but these are not recognized in the most recent monograph of the genus (J. Kuijt 2003). In addition to its primary hosts, Prosopis, Senegalia, and Vachellia, Phoradendron californicum has also been recorded from a number of other hosts including Condalia, Dalea, Ebenopsis, Havardia, Larrea, Olneya, Parkinsonia, and sometimes is hyperparasitic on Psittacanthus.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)