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Science 22 March 1985:
Vol. 227. no. 4693, pp. 1479 - 1481
DOI: 10.1126/science.227.4693.1479
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Articles

Xylem-Tapping Mistletoes: Water or Nutrient Parasites?

J. R. EHLERINGER 1, E. -D. SCHULZE 2, H. ZIEGLER 3, O. L. LANGE 4, G. D. FARQUHAR 5, and I. R. COWAR 5

1 Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112
2 Lehrstuhl für Planzenökologie, Universität Bayreuth, D-8580 Bayreuth, West Germany
3 Botanisches Institut der Technischen Universitat, D-8000 München, West Germany
4 Lehrstuhl für Botanik II der Universität Würzburg, D-8700 Würzburg, West Germany
5 Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601

Most mistletoes parasitize higher plants by tapping the xylem (a conduction tissue) of their hosts. Field observations of diurnal gas exchange parameters and carbon isotope ratios in xylem-tapping mistletoes from three continents support the hypotheses that water use efficiency and carbon isotope composition are related and that mistletoes which are parasitic for water are also nutrient parasites, differing in their water use efficiency relative to that of their hosts on the basis of host nitrogen supply in the transpiration stream.

Submitted on September 21, 1984
Accepted on November 20, 1984


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Host compatibility of the cloud forest mistletoe Psittacanthus schiedeanus (Loranthaceae) in Central Veracruz, Mexico.
L. L. d. Buen and J. F. Ornelas (2002)
Am. J. Botany 89, 95-102
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)