Definitely mistletoe! I thought they only grew in oaks. (I assume the "gall" is a result of the mistletoe's presence.) ange2006, there have been different theories about the picture-orientation issue; I don't know if this thread is correct -- and I don't have an iphone -- but it looks interesting: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg052322327093.html [Interestingly, when I click on the your photo, the result is rotated 180* -- still not right-side-up!]

So no flowers for me? That is quite alright as I have my hands full trying to get my Jades to flower... not sure if I could take on another "project" :) Good idea, Costarico, I have been looking into that after seeing pics of much fuller ones. The single stem look of mine is nice, however, I do admire the bushier ones. I would propagate the top part if pruned but I'm not sure if now is the best time to be doing so? When you say "cut down" about how far do you mean as I wouldn't want to cut down more than half. Thanks to you both.

If you know the location of this specimen I would suggest you visit it again and look for plants that climbed higher in the trees. By doing so you may be able to get photos of a more adult leaf which will give better clues to the true species' name. I would suggest you collect more specimens and carefully photograph all the surfaces of the specimen. By not only photographing and documenting them as well as counting the leaf veins, taking good notes about the petiole, noting the position of the collective vein and the spacing of the nodes and internodes on the stem you can help a scientist determine if it has been described. In fact, we can do so ourselves by using the LUCID program on CATE Araceae at the Kew in London. You are absolutely correct, Ecuador is a marvelous place and I would venture that likely only half of the species in the country have been formally described, Tom and botanist Pete Boyce suspect that there are almost as many aroid species left to be described as are now known. This is a beautiful specimen and I would love to grow it. If you know the guys at Ecuagenera I would suggest you show it to them since they have many plants in their collection that are yet to be described. I have received three from Ivan and Pepe in the past few years that have turned out to be unknown species and Tom has now given one the designation Philodendron Croat 101488 which puts in on the way to becoming a described specie. You can find the story of Croat 101488 on the net. Steve Here is a link that might be useful: Philodendron Croat 101488

Thanks for sharing those photos, Pam. It's always nice to have a reminder that spring will come when it's the depths of winter. I found myself noticing the varied foliage color and texture in the garden - quite nice. The Japanese Maple & the blue spruce - truly striking. Your MIL must have put much thought into the nonfloral characteristics as well as the flowers, or maybe that's what your eye & therefore camera sees. The lovely gray of the magnolia trunks really shines also. Jane is correct that photos 17 & 18 include a dogwood, but the leaves are opposite, while the pagoda dogwood is the only dogwood with alternate leaves - it's called Cornus alternifolia. I'd say it's one of the variegated shrubby dogwoods, but I don't know which one. If you can't find someone closer to help ID plants, I'd be happy to help you out next spring. I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell you exact cultivars, but I could tell you what most of the plants were generally. I'm just north of Concord.