Making trees better with mistletoe
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- Опубликовано: 19 дек 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.
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What a wonderful way to work with nature. Mistletoe birds have planted mistletoe in my garden, and with the drought there are few flowers on my trees but the mistletoe is always being visited by lorikeets and other honeyeaters.
Since I first saw this story I have been searching online for seed to try this at home. Does anyone know where I could source some seen and growing information?
Excellent idea! I´ve planted a lot of plane trees here at 900 meters in the mtns outside of Rio de Janeiro, but tropical mistletoe takes over and kills these kinds of trees in a few years so I just let them grow all year until the leaves fall from the planes, then I lop off the branches which have been taken over.
Why not just plant native trees? They can handle the mistletoe
My question is where would we purchase viable seed from. I'm in NSW and ha e two big non native Fraxinus griffithii out the front of my house, Is love to put some mistletoe into them when we moved in the garden was done, hardly any natives im starting to change that and this is great way to add something native onto something I cant change.
Awesome. Thanks!
Very inspiring' awesome
It’s still impossible to argue with cockies about mistletoe. I’ve been told time and again “scientists are full of it is they believe this crap”.
Good one! PS - the plane trees are on the way out though because of the extremely irritating micro hairs they shed in spring.
He He first with full view😄😘✌️
wonder if Melbourne will suffer a larger outbreak of herpes now cause of the mistletoe !
Why do you interview some random middle-aged white dude instead of the smart young female ecologist who has decidcated several years to doing this work?
He's the literal mistletoe expert, not some random white guy. He has a PHD in ecology.
You're the textbook example of feminism gone awry. You look at demographics first and qualifications second.