Jeff Schalau/University of Arizona

Desert mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens villosum) berries growing on Arizona white oak in Prescott.

This is the time of year when a particular parasitic plant gets a lot of attention, and is even brought into some of our homes.

If we’ve learned nothing else from Christmas movies, we know that people accidentally end up under a sprig of mistletoe at a holiday party and then have to kiss — and then end up living happily ever after.

Many of those movies are set in places where those holiday parties happen during a lovely Christmastime snowfall. But there is a type of mistletoe for us desert-dwellers, too.

To learn about it, The Show spoke with Kelsey Yule, project manager for the National Ecological Observatory Network Biorepository at Arizona State University.

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