Phoradendron juniperinum

Juniper or incense cedar mistletoe, Juniper Or Incense Cedar Mistletoe

Family: Viscaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Juniper or incense cedar mistletoe is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, Sierra Nevada, southern Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert in pinyon/juniper woodland and ponderosa-pine forest at elevations of 1,700 to 2,600 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces pink-white flowers on small, green or yellow-green stems. Growing 2 to 8 decimeters tall with erect or pendent stems that are generally woody only at the base, it appears delicate and sparse. Its leaves are extremely reduced, appearing as tiny scale-like structures less than one millimeter long. The fruit develops as small pink-white structures approximately 4 millimeters long, characteristic of mistletoe parasitic growth.

Habitat: Pinyon/juniper woodland, ponderosa-pine forest, on

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: 1700-2600 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaRH, n SNF, SNH, SCoRI, TR, PR, GB, DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern, Fresno, Lassen, Alpine, Tulare, El Dorado, Modoc, Plumas, Los Angeles, Madera, Nevada, Tuolumne, Mono, Amador, Placer, San Diego, Butte, Mariposa, Mendocino, San Benito, Riverside, Siskiyou, Humboldt, Calaveras, Sierra, Tehama, Del Norte, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Yuba

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.