“Dear Red Phone, mistletoe infestation began to appear in the trees planted in front of the library in the median between the sidewalk and the street quite some time ago. It seemed logical that these parasitic plants would be removed by city employees when the trees were pruned; however several years have passed and apparently nothing has been done to remove/eradicate the mistletoe, which will eventually kill the trees.
Subsequent infestations have begun to appear in city trees around town, in particular, in the trees in the median at the corner of Vineyard Boulevard and Monterey Road, on the south side of the Sizzler, as well as other trees on city and county property in this area and around town.
Allowing this parasite to flourish and multiply, which seems to be taking place rapidly, will eventually cause significant loss of our trees, the replacement of them probably far more costly than abatement of the disease early on.
At a minimum, city employees should be removing the mistletoe as pruning takes place. For example the trees in front of the library were trimmed not long ago, but the parasite remains.
This is a very serious matter; as an example, Arizona has lost vast acres of desert trees to unabated mistletoe, huge areas of the desert appear to have been burned, with only skeletons of trees remaining. We certainly don’t want this for Morgan Hill.
For more information about the parasite see: http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/diseases/az1308/; many more articles about mistletoe appear on the Internet.
We realize the city budget is highly strained, but neglect of this problem will be even more costly in the end. As a minimum, we encourage the city to train its gardeners and arborists to recognize and remove the offender as they perform standard tree maintenance.
Hopefully this information will encourage homeowners to be vigilant toward mistletoe removal for the preservation of their own trees as well.”
Red Phone: Dear Concerned Citizen, Red Phone is sure those reading this will tend to their trees and remove the parasite as soon as possible. Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemi-parasitic plants in several families in the order Santalales. These plants grow attached to and penetrating within the branches of a tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium. Mistletoe plants grow on a wide range of host trees, and commonly reduce their growth but can kill them with heavy infestation.
Hope that gets the word out, good caller.
