The Relationship among Infection Intensity of Viscum album   with some Ecological Parameters of Host Trees

We investigated the relations among infection intensity of European mistletoe (Viscum album L.) with host tree features in Nour Forest Park, located in Caspian Forests in North of Iran. The number of 30 circular plots with an area of 0.1 ha were sampled in all places have an aggregation of infested trees. Parameters including DBH, height, distance to stand edge, distance to conspecific tree, bark diameter and the number of adult mistletoe per tree for all infected individuals were recorded. Results showed that the mistletoe abundance and infection intensity in Parrotia persica was more than the other host species and also, have positive significant relation with DBH, distance to conspecific and locating in the stand edge, but no significant relation observed about height of host trees. Results of this study suggest that individual differences among host trees (specially DBH) play an important role in explaining local abundance and distribution of mistletoe plants.

Keywords
Infection intensity, European mistletoe, Host trees, Caspian forests, Conspecific tree