I am happy that Stan has stayed in touch with me after he moved to France. He was glad to leave Tulsa, but I, speaking as a member of the species Populus deltoides, am lucky to be an American.
Almost everywhere in the world, mistletoes are parasitic. In Oklahoma, they grow mostly on elm trees, which are weakened by the Dutch Elm Disease. But in Europe, the elm trees (les ormes, Stan calls them) are stronger, and most of the mistletoes (gui, they are called) grow on black poplar trees (peupliers noirs, or Populus nigra). European black poplars are nearly identical to American cottonwoods, as I noted in my previous essay. If I had been a European cottonwood instead of an American, I would be loaded down with mistletoes. This photo that Stan took in December shows a typical black poplar.
European plant species are similar to, but usually not the same as, American plant species. But the ecological relationships—in this case, parasitism—do not always line up the same way. Evolution has played out along a slightly different path in Europe. Both America and Europe have elms, mistletoes, and cottonwoods, but in Europe it is the cottonwoods, more even than the elms, that are heavy with mistletoes. And in this one case, it has been good luck for me, an American cottonwood.
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