Well hey there Doc! Think you may have gotten on the wrong thread but that's ok- I can roll with that.
Since you bring up the Dwarf Mistletoe- (pollen that is toxic) it gives me a chance to post about it-
Not a patent I don't think- but it's Sunday....
Dwarf Mistletoe Reveals Its Sexual Secrets
Dwarf Mistletoe Reveals Its Sexual Secrets
Fair use
Excerpt:
New research shows that the dwarf mistletoe, a member of the same Viscaceae family as the better-known Christmas varieties, is truly worthy of being hung with pride. The stubby variety might be a
clumpy green parasite of conifers, but it turns out to have the world's only water-pump seed ejection system. One that can fire a seed up to a dazzling 20 meters (65 feet). So who are you calling a dwarf now?
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Excerpt:
The seeds of the larger Christmas mistletoes (Viscum album and Phoradendron serotinum, parasites respectively of trees in Europe and the eastern U.S.) are dispersed by birds. Indeed, "mistletoe" literally means "turd on a twig." This refers to the fact that offspring of these parasitic plants start to grow on a new tree host after being eaten and deposited by a bird, complete with their own kick-start fertilizer.
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Mistletoe
Fair use
Excerpt;
Mistletoe is the yellow-green growth sometimes called “witch’s broom” that invades piñon and juniper trees. Our particular variety of mistletoe here in northern New Mexico is the Piñon
dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium divaricatum), a small, parasitic plant. The external shoots are yellow-green to brown, have small scale-like leaves at the nodes of shoots, and are perennial. Mistletoe extracts nutrients and water from the branches of the host tree eventually killing the branch.
Dwarf Mistletoe (Arceuthobium spp.) infest pines and other conifers in forests, and can be a problem in forest landscapes of the northern New Mexico high desert.
LIFE CYCLE AND BIOLOGY
Mistletoe plants are either female (produce berries) or male (produce only pollen). The berries of the female plant are small, sticky, and whitish. Dwarf mistletoes have mature stems less than 6 to 8 inches long. Dwarf mistletoe shoots are non-woody, segmented, and have small scale-like leaves. Dwarf mistletoe seeds are spread mostly by their forcible discharge from fruit, which can propel seeds horizontally into trees up to 30 to 40 feet away.
After the mistletoe seed germinates, it grows through the bark and into the tree’s water-conducting tissues, where root-like structures called haustoria develop. The haustoria gradually extend up and down within the branch as the mistletoe grows. Initially, the
parasitic plant grows slowly; it may take years before the plant blooms and produces seed.
DAMAGE
Dwarf mistletoe absorbs both water and mineral nutrients from its host trees. Healthy trees can tolerate a few mistletoe branch infections, but individual branches may be weakened or sometimes killed. Heavily infested trees may be reduced in vigor, stunted, or even killed, especially if they are stressed by other problems such as drought or disease.
Next- the Bees.....