Mistletoe

[shakyHands]

The local Mistletoe flowers as a red flower and around here seems to be mainly hosted on Casuarina trees. There are about 90 species of endemic mistletoe, and maybe 1500 worldwide all in the order Santalales. Currently they are thought to have originated in the Australian part of Gondwanaland some 30 million years ago.



This is in the bird section because one of the more common means of dispersal of the various mistletoes is via birds. Here the bird is the Misletoe bird (this one is an adult male).




It eats the fruit, strips of a sticky glucose rich layer that surrounds the seed and then excretes the seed as a sticky mess that sticks to the branch it is on ready to begin germination. The bird has no muscular gizzard to grind the seed so it passes quickly through the digestive system unharmed (in as little as 4 minutes).

Here is the excretion part of the process -

[Keith-369]

Lovely shots and very interesting facts/details.

[Ian]

Ah, so this is Australian Mistletoe? How does it differ to what we're used to in Europe? There's a lot around here. I don't recall seeing such bright colourful flowers.

Ian

[Ian]

Apparently only distantly related.

[shakyHands]

Ian Perhaps the most impressive mistletoe around here is Nuytsia floribunda (WA Christmas Tree) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuytsia). It is a root parasite, unlike the aerial one shown here and forms a quite large tree. It flowers yellow in summer (hence the xmas connection - flowering around xmas time). Driving down the main highway south from Perth you see clusters of the trees looking quite impressive.
As you mention, the European mistletoe are related - they are in the same Order (Santalales) but different families (the Australian ones are mainly in the family Loranthaceae - the showy mistletoe; the European mistletoe is in Family Santalaceae - sandlewoods).

[Geoff]

A fascinating story, and you've captured every detail perfectly, I'm amazed how nature is always full of surprises!