#loranthaceae

[chlorophyll-and-chitin]

Amyema pendula ssp. pendula

18-SEP-2025

Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Vic

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Another plant spotlight! I missed last week because life's been. really something lately lmao.

Agelanthus natalitius, natal mistletoe Family Loranthaceae

This mistletoe is native to southeastern Africa in mixed woodlands. Like other mistletoes, it's a hemiparasite, with its host plants mostly including Acacia sp. as well as some species of Combretum.

Img 1 - Img 2 Information

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#2067 - Lysiana casuarinae - Showy She-oak Mistletoe

In the Noongar langauge, Nyilla-nyilla. The generic name is based on the Greek lyo - "I set free" - referring to the separation of the genus from Loranthus, and casuarinae refers to the usual hostplant.

Endemic to SW and central Western Australia.

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Vecchio mandorleto nella Piana di Tagliacozzo (AQ). 01. Mentre alcuni esemplari sono ancora in grado di fiorire, quelli più deperenti subiscono un diffuso attacco da parte del Vischio quercino (Loranthus europaeus Jacq., Loranthaceae), nota pianta emiparassita.

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The Largest Mistletoe

When we think of mistletoes, we generally think about those epiphytic parasites living on branches way up in the canopy. The mistletoe we are discussing in this post, however, is a decent sized tree. Nuytsia floribunda is a native of western Australia where it is known locally as moojar or the Christmas tree. To the best of our knowledge, it is the largest mistletoe known to science.

Nuytsia floribunda is a member of the so-called showy mistletoe family (Loranthaceae). It along with all of its mistletoe cousins reside in the order Santalales but from a phylogenetic standpoint, the family Loranthaceae is considered sister to all other mistletoes. This has excited my botanists as it allows us a chance to better understand how parasitism may have evolved in this group as a whole.

Speaking of parasitism, there are some incredible things going on with N. floribunda that are worth talking about. For starters, it is not fully parasitic but rather hemiparasitic. As you can tell by looking at the tree decked out in a full canopy of leaves, N. floribunda is entirely capable of photosynthesizing on its own. In fact, experts feel that it is fully capable of meeting all of its own carbohydrate needs. Instead, it parasitizes other plants in order to acquire water and minerals. How it manages this is remarkable to say the least.

Nuytsia floribunda is a root parasite. Its own roots fan out into the surrounding soil looking for other roots to parasitize. Amazingly, exploratory roots of individual N. floribunda have been found upwards of 110 meters (360 ft.) or more away from the tree. When N. floribunda do find a suitable host root, something incredible happens. It begins to form specialized roots called “haustoria”, which to form a collar-like structure around the host’s roots.

The collar gradually swells and a small horn forms on the inside of the haustoria. Swelling of the haustoria is the result of an influx of water and as the pressure around the host root builds, the haustorial horn of N. floribunda physically cuts into its victim. Once this cut is formed, the haustoria form balloon-like outgrowths which intrude into the xylem tissues of the host root, thus forming the connection that allows N. floribunda to start stealing the water and minerals it needs.

Even more amazing is the fact that roots aren’t the only thing that N. floribunda will attempt to exploit. Many inanimate objects have been found wrapped up in a haustorial embrace including dead twigs, rocks, fertilizer granuals, and even electric cables! Its non-selective parasitic nature appears to have left it open to exploring other, albeit dead end options. I don’t want to paint the picture that this tree as the enemy of surrounding vegetation. It is worth noting that N. floribunda extracts very little from any given host so its impact is spread out among the surrounding vegetation, making its overall impact on host plants minimal most of the time.

Provided its needs have been met, N. floribunda puts on one heck of a show around December. In fact, the timing of its blooms is the reason it earned the common name of Christmas tree. Flowering for this species is not a modest affair. Each tree is capable of producing multiple meter-long inflorescences decked out in sprays of bright orange to yellow flowers. The flowers themselves produce copious amounts of pollen and nectar, making it an important food source for resident pollinators. Though many different species have been documented visiting the flowers, it is thought that beetles and wasps are the most effective at pollination.

Seed dispersal for N. floribunda is mainly via wind. Each fruit is adorned with three prominent wings. After they detach from the tree, the fruits usually break apart into three samaras, each with its own wing. The key for success of any propagule is ending up in a site suitable for germination. According to some, this can be a bit tricky and attempts at cultivating this plant in captivity have not been terribly successful. It would seem that nature knows best when it comes to reproductive success in N. floribunda. It may be worth trying to figure it out though because recent evidence suggests that this species is not faring well with human development. As the surrounding landscapes of western Australia become more and more urbanized, plants like N. floribunda seem to be on the decline. Perhaps renewed interest in growing this species could change the tide for it as well as others.

Photo Credits: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Further Reading: [1] [2] [3] [4]

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#2066 - Amyema preissii - Wireleaf Mistletoe

One of several mistletoes growing on Cooleenup Island. Some of the she-oaks had multiple species growing on them.

A mistletoe found in all mainland states, where it parasitses hosts that include coast wirilda, golden wattle and drooping sheoak. The flowers are red and up to 26 mm long, and the fruits are white or pink, globose and 8–10 mm in diameter. Other mistletoes including the Samphire Mistletoe Amyema microphylla may have similar foliage, but of them only this species has all-red flowers growing in groups of three, and translucent fruit.

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7,050 views  Dec 20, 2019  Mistletoes are woody, parasitic plants that parasitise above ground on branches, as opposed to in the soil. There are almost 100 species of mistletoe in Australia and all of them are native – none is introduced.   But ask most people about mistletoe, and they’ll either recall an archaic tradition involving kissing and Christmas or say it’s a parasite that kills its host tree.  So then why would the City of Melbourne willingly introduce 800 mistletoe seeds into perfectly healthy street trees?

Mistletoe expert Professor David Watson has been involved in the project and says it’s not in the mistletoe’s interest to kill its host. The Melbourne city plan was to try to make the existing trees more wildlife-friendly. By introducing mistletoes, they are bringing structure, food and shelter for a whole range of wildlife.

The project introduced 800 mistletoe seeds from one particular species of mistletoe into a number of Melbourne’s ubiquitous, non-native London plane trees, which are excellent for tolerating pollution and a range of weather conditions, but which are not particularly good as wildlife habitat or food.

The mistletoe plants bring nectar, leaves, fruit, and a dense, evergreen network of branches to nest in. Mistletoes bring these extra ‘resources’ because they are not bound by the same rules as other plants; they take the water and nutrients they need from the tree so they can flower whenever they want, they don’t drop their leaves in times of drought, and so can offer nectar and fruit when no other plants do.

The Melbourne trees have been seeded with creeping mistletoe (Muellerina eucalyptoides), which were chosen because they are slow growing and will easily adapt to plane trees. The two-year-old plant that David points out to Millie still only has a few leaves. The sticky fresh seed was pressed onto the underside of the branch – where any moisture is likely to gather –then the team waited for them to grow. In nature, the seeds are usually distributed by mistletoe birds (Dicaeum hirundinaceum), which only feed on mistletoe fruit. The seeds pass through their digestive system in only 14-15 minutes and, because the seeds are sticky, the birds have to wipe them off on a branch to dislodge them.

Mistletoes also provide a benefit to their host plant; their leaves are very high in potassium and, unlike regular plants that withdraw nutrients from leaves before dropping them, mistletoe leaves are dropped ‘intact’, so the leaf litter makes good, fertile compost. “They are returning most of the nutrients to the tree,” David says.

As its scientific name suggests, creeping mistletoe (Muellerina eucalyptoides), has leaves that resemble Eucalyptus trees – this is to blend in with the natural hosts. Other mistletoes resemble specific hosts, such as acacias, hakeas, banksias, casuarinas, paperbarks and leopardwoods.

While many mistletoes carry their flowers high in a tall tree, it’s worth taking a close look if you see flowers at head height, as they are quite exquisite.

So if you find some mistletoe seed and you’d like to boost the biodiversity of your backyard, try adding some parasitic bling to your tree.

Featured plants: Fleshy mistletoe (Amyema miraculosa) – long, dark red flowers that hang between long grey-green leaves. Brush mistletoe (Amylotheca dictyophleba) – sprays of brick red flowers with pale green tips and wide, dark green glossy leaves. Samphire mistletoe (Amyema microphylla) – stubby, cylindrical fleshy leaves Wireleaf mistletoe (Amyema preissii) – thin, wiry bright green leaves, bright red drooping flower bunches and white or pinkish-white berries Creeping mistletoe (Muellerina eucalyptoides) – Eucalypt-shaped leaves and long, green, hanging flower buds that open to reveal red stamens inside. Leopardwood mistletoe (Amyema lucasii) – Attractive blue-green foliage with bunches of bright yellow flowers. West Australian Christmas tree (Nuytsia floribunda) – the tallest mistletoe plant, which grows directly in the ground as a tall tree – it can reach 15m tall – but whose roots attach to the roots of nearby plants to access nutrients. Has brilliant golden-yellow flowers.

Watch Gardening Australia on ABC iview: http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/gard...

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#1863 - Amyema linophylla - Buloke Mistletoe

In She-oak swamp at Cannington, Perth. The name derives from the Greek for "without" and "to instruct"; because the full description of the genus had not been published when the name was first used, and ‘thread-leaved’. Buloke, or Bull-oak, is Allocasuarina luehmannii, a species of ironwood native to Australia - its wood is possibly the hardest commercially available as timber.

A fairly rare species but found across most of Australia wherever Casuarina grows, one of Australia’s very wide variety of mistletoes and other parasitic plants (the family probably evolved here). The genus is found across Australia and up into Malesia. 

The leaves of Buloke Mistletoe are cylindrical, and from a distance closely resemble the photosynthesizing branchlets of the host tree. Amyema fruit is edible, and the poisonous leaves are eaten by the caterpillars of Jezabel butterflies and Satin Azures.