Holiday Trees and Mistletoe (and dessert)

Our December 4, 2025 membership meeting will celebrate winter cheer.

The evening will start at 5:30 pm with an optional hour-long keying workshop on Holiday Trees and Mistletoe. Learn the key characteristics to identify local pines (Pinaceae) and mistletoes (Viscaceae) and practice keying them. Bring your own hand lens, headlamp and dissection tools. You will be provided a copy of relevant keys, and extra tools will be available. This workshop is free.

The December membership meeting will start at 6:30 pm with a social gathering and members are invited to bring a holiday dessert to share.

At 7:30 pm the formal business meeting will begin including election of chapter officers for 2026. Our speaker will be Dr. Dena Grossenbacher on Underneath the Mistletoe: Exploring Mistletoe and Their Hosts in SLO County.

Have you ever wondered what a mistletoe is and where to find them? How do they get around?  Do they specialize on certain hosts?  Do they harm their hosts? We will explore all of this and more, including master’s thesis work by Ella Abelli-Amen who conducted experimental mistletoe transplants at Santa Margarita Ranch to test whether oak-mistletoe specialize on coast live, valley or blue oak.  The answer was a surprise.

Dr. Dena Grossenbacher is an associate professor of botany at Cal Poly in the Department of Biological Sciences.  She studies the evolution and ecology of California’s diverse flora, from alpine to coastal habitats. Her favorite plants tend to be those in extreme and edgy habitats. She is currently co-president of our chapter, the program director of the California Botanical Society, an associate editor of the journal Madrono, and recently published a Manual of Plant Identification and Classification

General membership meetings and this workshop are free and open to everyone.

Photo by Ella Abelli-Amen