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Viscum combreticola
Also called Bushwillow Mistletoe
Birdlime, Viscum combreticola, is a leafless, hemiparasitic mistletoe shrub from tropical and southern Africa that grows on the branches of host trees, mainly Combretum species. It is grown only in the wild, not as a garden or houseplant, so care is largely a matter of its host tree.
Viscum combreticola, the Combretum mistletoe, is a leafless, dioecious mistletoe shrub, occurring from southern to tropical Africa, in a broad zone following the Rift Valleys. Though it is typically a hemiparasite of Combretum species, it may also be found on Terminalia (Combretaceae), Acacia, Croton, Diplorhynchus, Dombeya, Heteropyxis, Maytenus, Melia, Strychnos or Vangueria.
The much-branched twigs are flattened, ribbed and divided into clear segments. The brittle olive to olive-green segments exude a watery sap when broken. Their sessile fruit, usually in pairs, grow from the segment joints. They are ellipsoid berries of 6-7 mm in diameter, that are warty when young but smooth and orange when ripe.
European mistletoe · Viscum capense · Red Berried Mistletoe · Viscum exile · Mini Mistletoe · Viscum rotundifolium · Nama Mistletoe · Mistletoe
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Viscum combreticola by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
