I've never had mistletoe on the property until year, and I'm guessing the mistletoe birds have brought it in. You can see the native pollinator here https://365project.org/thedarkroom/365/2020-09-14
This is a nifty fifty shot, but a fun fact I love about the mistletoe bird is how they help this parasite pollinate. The bird does a little dance as it poops and wipes its butt onto the tree branch in such a way that the poop, containing a pollinated seed, sticks to the branch, providing the seed with a damp sticker so the seed can sprout and take hold by itself.
A bright cheery flower and a bright cheery bird, and a lovely spot of biodiversity.
In a healthy area of bush, mistletoe will provide diversity rather than overtake and kill. But even if it kills the odd tree, well dead trees create important ecosystems too.
There is your Friday afternoon nature documentary, you're welcome 😊
Interesting background. That’s the thing about nature. The death of one species often is what’s needed to give an opening for another one. Sad for the individual member of the losing species but on the bigger scale keeps ‘life’ in general going.
Lovely shot of your beautiful mistletoe. Ours have white berries on them and are usually high in trees. Thanks for the info, sure learnt something today ;-)
A nice shot Katrina. We have quite a bit of mistletoe and it doesn't seem to do any harm to the hosts - even in the last few years of little rain.
We discovered a few weeks ago that some mistletoes have actually adapted to resemble their host plants. Isn't nature fascinating! :)
Ian
We discovered a few weeks ago that some mistletoes have actually adapted to resemble their host plants. Isn't nature fascinating! :)