Investigation of Symptoms and Hosts of Semi Parasite Plant Species in East Mediterranean and Central Anatolia Region of Turkey

This study was carried out to determine the symptoms and hosts of the semi parasitic plant species causing problems on the forest and fruit trees in the East Mediterranean (Kahramanmaras) and Central Anatolia region (Nigde) in 2012-2016. When these semi parasitic plants appear on the plants, they can cause swelling at the germinated sites of branches of their host and resulting backward tissue drying. It has also been observed to cause the host to die completely in some host such as almonds and apricot. The study was conducted in Nigde, through the Mistletoe survey performed on some fruit and park trees and the results indicated that a subspecies of semi parasitic. Viscum album naming Viscum album ssp. album was living on these trees. The whitethorn, wild pear, Ankara pear, almond, Braeburn apple, plum, apricot, sour cherry, locust, Canada poplar and willow were found to be the host for Viscum album ssp. album. Other mistletoe species; Viscum album ssp. abietis was seen on Taurus fir and Taurus cedar while Viscum album subsp. austriacum on Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana. In Kahramanmaras, Dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium oxycedri) was seen on Small fruited pine (Juniperus oxycedrus subsp. oxycedrus), Crimean juniper (Juniperus excelsa Bieb.) and Syrian juniper (Juniperus drupacea Labill.); Yellow mistletoe (Loranthus europaeus) was seen on Turkey oak (Quercus cerris) and Aleppo oak (Quercus infectoria); White mistletoe (Viscum album subsp. abietis) on Taurus fir (Abies cilicia subsp. cilicica) and Taurus cedar (Cedrus libani); Pine mistletoe (V. album subsp. austriacum) was seen on Pinus nigra (Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana). On the other hand, Viscum album ssp. a lbum was not found on any host in Kahramanmaras. DOI:10.18016/ ksudobil.350489 Article History Received : 10.11.2017 Accepted : 12.12.2017

Mistletoe species can perform photosynthesis because of having chlorophyll.However they do not possess a root system like the other plants.Haustorium of mistletoe penetrates to xylem of host to take minerals and water.Mistletoe species have flowers and seedsand the external surfaces of the seeds are sticky, so they can easily stick on tree branches and can germinate on hosts (Hawksworth and Scharpf, 1986;Hawskworth and Wiens, 1996).Loranthusis a genus of parasitic plants that grow on the branches of woody trees.Modern systematists consider it as a monotypic genus with the only species Loranthus europaeus Jacq.
the summer mistletoe or European yellow mistletoe.
To our knowledge, so far, there was no any studies related symptoms of semi parasitic plants conducted in Kahramanmaras and Nigde.

Materials
The material of this research is mistletoe species, fruit and forest trees.Surveys were conducted in East Mediterranean (Kahramanmaras province) and Central Anatolia region (Nigde province) in 2012-2016.

Methods
Mistletoe branches were counted to using field glass for tall trees.Special coverage was calculated via formula proposed by Odum (1971), where SC= Total % coverage of each species/measuring the count of each species found (1) V. album ssp.album in shrub shape and 19-28 cm tall, the leaves are dark green, opposite pairs, strapshaped, entire, leathery textured, 3-5cm long and 1-1.5 cm broad, fruits are round and white colour (Figure1).
The stems length are13-38 cm with dichotomous branches.
V. album ssp.abietis similar to V. album ssp.album but there were some diffreneces like leaves size 2x0.8 cm and stem length 9-30 cm (Figure 3).Also the leaves were yellowish-green and fruit eliptic.
The infection severity of V. album subsp.abietis on A. cilicica subsp.cilicica was determined as moderate to severe with the ratio of 15.80%, while it was less severe on Cedrus libani with the ratio of 4.80% in Nigde.
Simultaneously, the infection severity on A. cilicica subsp.cilicica was moderate to severe with the ratio of 10.73%, and was less severe on C. libani with the ratio of 3.40% in Kahramanmaras.Two symptom case of V. album subsp.abietis infections were observed.One of which was at needle leafed.A. cilicica subsp.cilicica where shoot tips were dried (Figure 4), while the other case was on C. libani where no dryness were occured.
However, the swelling at branches of both mistlete hosts were observed during the infection (Figure 5, 6 and 7).V. album ssp.austriacum is similar to V. album ssp.album and V. album ssp.abietis but there are some diffreneces like leave size 2.80x0.70cm and stem length 15-28 cm (Figure 8).Also the leaves are slightly yellowish-green.The ratio of infection severity of V.  was determined as moderate to severe with a ratio of 10.82% for J. oxycedrus subsp.oxycedrus, as less severe with that ratio of 8.57% for J. excelsa and as 7.78% for J. drupacea.Symptoms followed at first on needle leaf then on shoot tips causing them to dry on the hosts (Figure 9 and 10), and causing shoots completely to dry at the end.
Figure 10. A. oxycedri on J. excelsa and J. drupacea L. europaeus possess a similar branching pattern to the evergreen mistletoe Viscum album, but it is deciduous, yellow-berried mistletoe with dull brown twigs.L. europaeus was not seen in Nigde, but it was seen on two host in Kahramanmaras.Infection severity of L. europaeus was less severe and was 8.69%, 7.97% for Q. cerris and Q. infectoria, respectively.Symptoms occurred resulting shoot tips and leaves of hosts to dry.In addition, L. europaeus caused swelling in the branches (Figure 11) resulting Oak shoots to dry completely (Figure 12).The rate of infection by V. album ssp.album was high on Almond 48.54%, Apricot 34.98% and on Pear 28.64%.The ratio of infection severity of V. album subsp.abietis was moderate to severe with the ratio of 2.40-9.73% on hosts.Similarly, V. album subsp.austriacum was found moderate to severe with a ratio of 15.25% on P. nigra subsp.pallasiana.Another semi parasite plant, the ratio of infection severity of A. oxycedri on the host were detected moderate to severe with a ratio of 7.78-10.82%for related hosts.Also infection severity of L. europaeus was found less severe as 7.97-8.69%on hosts (Üstüner et al., 2015; Üstüner 2016).A. oxycedri is widespread in Turkey, A. oxycedri was usually found on J. oxycedri and J. drupacea trees in Turkey (Miller, 1982;Hawksworth and Wiens, 1996).
After mistletoe germination hostourium penetrated to host xylems, the sweelling was formed at germination site.Mistletoe infections lower the vigor of the host, induce premature mortality, reduce the quality and quantity of wood produced.Heavily infected trees die following a few years (Bhattacharyya and Uniyal, 1982;Hawksworth, 1983).Most infected trees with A. oxycedri can survive for several decades; generally the smaller trees decline and die more quickly than the larger ones.The first symptom of dwarf mistletoe infection is a slight swelling of the bark at the infection site (Hawksworth and Geils, 1990;Hawksworth and Wiens, 1996;Koski et al., 2013).L. europaeus has a similar branching pattern to the evergreen mistletoe Viscum album L., infected trees with L. europaeus may be reduced in vigor, stunted, or even killed.On some host species large swelling occure at the infected branches where the mistletoe penetration taken place (Perry et al., 2006;Zebec and Idsotij, 2006).

CONCLUSION
Infection severity of mistletoe species may be differ according to hosts, density, region and ecosystem in Nigde and Kahramanmaras.
Mistletoe species caused swelling at the germinated site in the branches of the host and caused the shoot tips of host to dry.V. album subsp.abietis caused A. cilicica subsp.cilicica needles leaves to dry first, then the shoot and finaly kill the host completely.Pine trees infected by Viscum can live longer but apricots and almonds could not.Swellings on the branches and shoot tips of Q. cerris and Q. infectoria were killed by L. europaeus.

Figure7
Figure7.V. album subsp.abietis is causing clogging of xylem, resulting swelling left, drying and dying back of the shoot tips of pine needles(Üstüner at al., 2015).
album subsp.austriacum was 10.24% on P. nigra subsp.pallasiana in Nigde and was 16.23% in Kahramanmaras.The symptoms of V. album subsp.austriacum resulted swelling at the germination site at branches, and needle leaf driyness.Pine trees infected by mistletoe have a tendency to live longer.