# For Southerners, AL central area



## FeralFemale (Apr 10, 2006)

I just moved here in July. Since the leaves have left the trees, I noticed round globes of leaves in the trees. At first, I thought they were squirrel nests, but as the leaves totally left the trees I realized they were something else. 

I tried googling, but the search terms kept giving me something totally off topic.

Anyone know what it is I am talking about?

Also, there are these bushes on the sides of the road everywhere. They are just about the only thing left on the ground that is green (except for envasive bamboo) They have little leaves up and down each branch and they are everywhere.

Any help with this would be great. The globe-like tree bushes are killing me!!! lol.


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## Guest (Dec 28, 2013)

Sounds like mistletoe in the trees. As to the bushes, azalea stays green all winter. As does boxwood and wax myrtle. Some varieties of butterfly bush are evergreen.


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## kudzuvine (Aug 11, 2011)

mistletoe - oak trees here have many bunches in them this year


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## Whisperwindkat (May 28, 2009)

Mistletoe in the trees and the bushes along the side of the road are probably Chinese privet. They are an invasive species. However, like Japanese privet they can be pruned and maintained to provide a formidable hedge. The key is to prune and train them regularly and have enough planted together. If you don't have them you don't really want them, even my goats haven't been able to get rid of them all. Welcome to Alabama.


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## FeralFemale (Apr 10, 2006)

Ha! Mistletoe! I don't know why it didn't occur to me. I guess I didn't think it grew in the south, though where I thought it grew, I couldn't tell you....I've certainly never seen it anywhere else.

Thanks for the help, everyone


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## FeralFemale (Apr 10, 2006)

Oh, and thanks for the privet info, too. It sure is everywhere.


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## ldc (Oct 11, 2006)

Here in South Louisiana the round green balls are all mistletoe, too!


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## Stonybrook (Sep 22, 2007)

Privet is a relative of kudzu, I think. It certainly invades everything almost as badly.


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Hmmm...would privet be what I grew up calling hedge? I hated hedge until I got goats. They sure do like to eat it and I'm glad to have it in the wintertime. Come Spring when it blooms I start hating it again.


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## RThomas (Dec 27, 2013)

Ravenlost said:


> Hmmm...would privet be what I grew up calling hedge? I hated hedge until I got goats. They sure do like to eat it and I'm glad to have it in the wintertime. Come Spring when it blooms I start hating it again.


It could be as they were used as hedges. They can often be found on old homesteads and along creek and river banks. They are covered in tiny white flowers in spring, and later develop purplish berries. http://www.ag.auburn.edu/agrn/weedsci/weedid/plant/view.php?plantid=4aafe5c3870195.98403601


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

FeralFemale said:


> I just moved here in July. Since the leaves have left the trees, I noticed round globes of leaves in the trees. At first, I thought they were squirrel nests, but as the leaves totally left the trees I realized they were something else.
> 
> I tried googling, but the search terms kept giving me something totally off topic.
> 
> ...


The clumps in the trees are mistletoe (Yes some folks still harvest it during the holidays by shooting it out of trees although most who now harvest it climb the trees and use extension pruners instead to avoid damaging the mistletoe or the host tree.

The most common wild privot are varieties of yaupon and can easily be transplanted when young (single shoot about the size of a #2 pencil with 6 inch tap root) by pulling from wet ground and planting in a spade slice in moist soil.

I have some 20 year old yaupon that I transplanted along my property line for a living privacy fence/ ground level wind break and some of the trunks are now 4 to 5 inches in diameter and the spacing between the plants is about a foot and a half.

When I prune the hedge rows I try to weave 3 or 4 small diameter shoots from neighboring yaupon bushes or bend over and bury shoot ends to create a weaved fabric factor to my living fence hedge row.


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