Mistletoes from Argentina: Ligaria cuneifolia as a natural substitute for European mistletoe.

FERNANDEZ, T; VARELA, B; TAIRA C; RICCO, RA; GURNI, AA; HAJOS S; ALVAREZ E.; WAGNER M

Mistletoe. The Genus Viscum.

Harwood Academic Publishers

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2000; p. 61 - 75

ABSTRACT The mistletoes are a diverse group in the order Santalales of hemiparasitic shrubs, usually growing on the aerial parts of another plants ?hosts-, from which they take water and minerals nutrients. There are approximately 1400 species grouped in three families: Loranthaceae. Eremolepidaceae and Viscaceae and widely distributed geographically. Nearly all mistletoe genera are exclusively tropical or subtropical. All genera but one (Arceuthobium) are restricted to either the Western or the Eastern Hemisphere. The Viscaceae occur in tropical and temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere; the Loranthaceae are generally tropical and commonly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. (Geils, B.W.; Cibrián Tovar, J. and Moody, B. (2002) Mistletoes of North American Conifers, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain). The loranthaceous and viscaceous mistletoes mainly had been considered sub-families (Loranthoideae and Viscoideae) within the Loranthaceae. The evidence accumulated over many years based on anatomical, embryological and chromosomal differences has enlarged the systematic distance between them, so much so that a separation into distinct families (Loranthaceae and Viscaceae) have become inevitable. Eremolepidaceae was also separated from Viscaceae. Loranthacean genera have large, brilliant and bisexual flowers which posess a calyculus and the viscid layer is outside the vascular bundles. Viscacean genera have inconspicuous unisexual flowers, lack a calyculus and the position of the viscid layer is inside of the vascular bundles. Kuijt, J. (1969) The Biology of Parasitic Flowering Plants. Univ. of California Press, California. The most popular species is the ?European mistletoe? (Viscum album L.-Viscaceae-), considered the traditional Christmas mistletoe. and a mythical plant since ancient times and used in folk medicine mainly to treat hypertension. Nowadays, it is being object of immunological, cytotoxic and antitumoral studies. Its fame has been transplanted by substitution to the mistletoes of other lands, especially Phoradendron serotinum of North America and several species of South America. Phoradendron serotinum (Rafinesque) M.C. Johnston, - Sin.: Viscum serotinum Rafinesque, Phoradendron flavescens ? is called ?the American mistletoe?. It comprises taxa that occur from the eastern U.S.A. into California and Oregon and far south into Mexico. Four subspecies have been recognized: 1. Ph. serotinum subsp. tomentosum (D.C.) Kuijt, comb. nov. 2. Ph. serotinum subsp. macrophyllum (Engelmann) Kuijt, subsp. nov. 3. Ph. serotinum subsp. serotinum 4. Ph. serotinum subsp. angustifolium Kuijt, subsp. nov. Kuijt, J. (2003) ?Monograph of Phoradendron (Viscaceae)? in Systematic Botany Monographs. The American Society of Plant Taxonomists, Michigan, Vol. 66: 411-424. The Argentine mistletoes comprise species of the three families, known with different common names. They grow from North to South, from Jujuy to Río Negro provinces and from West to East, from the Andes Range to Uruguay river. Leaves and stems of these plants are used in folk medicine, due to their morphological similarities, as substitutes of the European mistletoe. According to the Vascular Plants Catalogue of the Argentine Republic there are over 25 species.