Arceuthobium vaginatum(Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) J.Presl

pineland dwarf mistletoe

WFO wfo-0000543308 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Arceuthobium vaginatum, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. a Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-07-19 / obs. 87345637
Arceuthobium vaginatum, photographed by CK2AZ
fig. b CK2AZ, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 33083568
Arceuthobium vaginatum, photographed by Katja Schulz
fig. c Katja Schulz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 11671013
Arceuthobium vaginatum, photographed by Craig Martin
fig. d Craig Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 106946045
Arceuthobium vaginatum, photographed by mark-groeneveld
fig. e mark-groeneveld, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191837230
Arceuthobium vaginatum, photographed by Robbie Hannawacker
fig. f Robbie Hannawacker, CC0 1.0 / obs. 180989403
Arceuthobium vaginatum, photographed by Caleb Catto
fig. g Caleb Catto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178584872
Arceuthobium vaginatum, photographed by Guillermo Huerta Ramos
fig. h Guillermo Huerta Ramos, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169285176

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 13 botanical countries

Regions where Arceuthobium vaginatum is native: Arizona, Colorado, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Guatemala, Honduras ArizonaColoradoMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestNew MexicoTexasUtahGuatemalaHonduras
Native distribution of Arceuthobium vaginatum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
Colorado COL
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
New Mexico NWM
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Guatemala GUA SOUTHERN AMERICA
Honduras HON

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 208 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -11.4 °C -5.5 °C 0.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 14.4 °C 25.1 °C 27.9 °C
Annual rainfall 422 mm 594 mm 1,498 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 35 mm 60 mm 114 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 208 research-grade observations of Arceuthobium vaginatum that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 10 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Arceuthobium campylopodum var. cryptopodum (Engelm.) Jeps.
  • Arceuthobium cryptopodum Engelm.
  • Arceuthobium durangense (Hawksw. & Wiens) Hawksw. & Wiens
  • Arceuthobium vaginatum f. cryptopodum (Engelm.) L.S.Gill
  • Arceuthobium vaginatum subsp. vaginatum
  • Arceuthobium vaginatum var. cryptopodum (Engelm.) Cronquist
  • Arceuthobium vaginatum var. durangense (Hawksw. & Wiens) B.L.Turner
  • Razoumofskya cryptopoda (Engelm.) Coville
  • Razoumofskya vaginata (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Kuntze
  • Viscum vaginatum Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.