Mistletoe the host plant. "Viscum album" successfully parasitizes more than 200 tree and shrub species. All mistletoe species are hemiparasites, because they do perform at least a little photosynthesis for at least a short period of their life cycle. However, in some species its contribution is very nearly zero. For example, some species, such as "Viscum minimum", that parasitize succulents, commonly species of Cactaceae or Euphorbiaceae, grow largely within the host plant, with hardly more than the flower and fruit emerging. Once they have germinated and attached to the circulatory system of the host, their photosynthesis reduces so far that it
Viscum nudum"), but with the plant drawing its mineral and water needs from the host tree. Different species of "Viscum" tend to use different host species; most species are able to use several different host species. The flowers are inconspicuous, greenish-yellow, diameter. The fruit is a berry, white, yellow, orange, or red when mature, containing one or more seeds embedded in very sticky juice; the seeds are dispersed when birds (notably the mistle thrush) eat the fruit, and remove the sticky seeds from the bill by wiping them on tree branches where they can germinate. "Viscum" species are poisonous to humans;