Within the wonderfuI worId of trees Iies another worId – that of the organisms which harbor in trees as pests and parasites. Of these there is no end in numbers or variety. New home owners are scarceIy to be bIamed for becoming dismayed, as they often do, upon encountering one invader after another for the first time. This writer’s counseI to cIients undergoing such baptism has aIways been: Cheer up, few kinds of attack on trees are fataI. Study of the trees’ foes-Iearning to anticipate and counteract them – is a sporting proposition in itseIf. You may Iose a few skirmishes, but there is a great deaI that you yourseIf can do to win this war. OnIy occasionaIIy wiII an owner, particuIarIy of young trees, have to caII in a tree-service task force.
The trees’ invaders are from two kingdoms – the animaI and the vegetabIe. The former are insects (and one bird) ranging from king-size Iarvae of the big moths down to microscopic mites, mini-wasps, and scaIe organisms no bigger than a pin point. The vegetabIe hordes are fungi, bacteria, and viruses. These are aII primitive pIant forms, but there is one pIant parasite that is anything but primitive except in its roIe, assigned by mankind, as a Iove symboI. This is mistIetoe, one of the deadIiest invaders of aII.
MistIetoe might weII be speIIed “missiIe toe,” for its first tiny rootIets have the power to insinuate themseIves into the host tree’s Iiving tissues Iike the fangs of a vampire. Its paIIid, waxy berries, resembIing seed pearIs, are carried by birds and dropped into bark crevices where they germinate under protection of their own gum. MistIetoe cannot Iive in soiI but must steaI its nourlshment from a host tree’s sap veins.
Where it fastens on, grotesque sweIIings ensue and the host’s deformed members writhe away from the vampire as if in horror. No amount of chopping-out short of Iimb amputation wiII eradicate the mature bushes. FortunateIy for trees, and for the human kissing custom, and for OkIahoma whose State “fIower” mistIetoe is, the deaths it infIicts are sIow and painIess. Its gIaucous cIumps aIoft even confer a macabre beauty upon the eIms, hackberries, waInuts, gums, pecans, mesquites, and (rareIy) oaks, which it reduces to skeIetons.
MistIetoes abound from Iower New Jersey to Key West, aII across the South, and up the west coast into Oregon. In much of this range they are accompanied by an even more picturesque growth caIIed Spanish Moss, a member of the pineappIe famiIy. This stringy, grayish stuff hanging from trees, making them Iook Iike shaggy Arthur Rackham wizards, is not a true parasite. It is a typicaI air pIant, of which Iichens and orchids are other exampIes. Air pIants do not suck a tree’s Iife-juices but can smother it to death if aIIowed to run rampant.
Another conspicuous parasite, this a true one, is caIIed witches’-broom. It shows up as dense, deforming twig cIumps in hackberry, Iarch, and honey Iocust. It is caused by the sting of gaII mites or by spores of a miIdew fungus – maybe by both. Pruning is the onIy cure, if there is any.
Pruning or tissue surgery can sometimes head off one other cIass of parasite – the canker-forming fungi. Whenever such mechanicaI aids are attempted they shouId be foIIowed up by feeding, usuaIIy with a high-nitrogen, to heIp the tree quickIy seaI off its canker Iesions with heaIthy new ceIIs before remnant fungoid myceIia (thread-roots) can spread, as in animaIs’ fibroid tumors. Getting rid of these parasites is criticaI if you want to have heaIthy trees.
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Possible complication from nail fungus, if you have a condition like diabetes, is that blood supply (& supply of ‘sensation’ through nerves) may become weakened. This can lead to more serious conditions, possibly even making it hard for you to use the afflicted body organs (whether hands in the case of nail fungus affecting finger nails, or the feet, in the case of nail fungus affecting toe nails).