Infestation and host specificity of mistletoe parasitic plants in Purwodadi Botanic Garden

Abstract

Mistletoes  are  aerial  hemiparasitic plant  that infesting and parasitizing  on wild and  cultivated  plants. They are can be categorized  as  generalist and  specialist  mistletoes according to  their host plants diversity.  Shannon index of the host plants  diversity  can be used  to  determine host  specificity of mistletoes. Study aimed to know and determine host plants  and host  specificity of  mistletoes   in  Purwodadi Botanic  Garden  was conducted in 2013, 2017 and 2021. Data   of  mistletoes  and  their  hosts species  was  collected by explorative  and descriptive  methods  in   2013, 2017, and  2021.  Recorded data  by observation  in the  fields  were  species  and species number of  mistletoes and their hosts.  Observation  of the  misteltoes  used binoculars  to ditermine the  species  of  the  mistletoes.  Identification of   the  mistletoes  species and  their hosts  was  conducted  directly in the  garden and undirectly by  making  herbarium specimens and  taking  photographs. The  results showed that   there were five  species  of  mistletoes infested  142 species, 82 genera and 36 families of  host plants  namely Dendrophthoe  pentandra, Macrosolen tetragonus, Scurrula atropurpurea, Viscum articulatum, and  Viscum  ovalifolium.  There  were  significantly different between   the  mistletoe species and  their Shannon index of  host plants . D. pentandra  was the most generalist or the  least specialist  to host plants with  the  highest   Shannon  index value of 2.20±0.10, whereas  S. atropurpurea was the  least generalist or the  most  specialist with Shannon index value of   0.16±0.09.