Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Field work in southern Queensland part 1: Mistletoe mania

Currently doing field work in southern Queensland. We are primarily trying to find a certain rare species, but today we were not yet lucky. Part of the problem may be that the area is quite dry at the moment, but then again lots of other plants are out and in bloom, so maybe that is not the main issue. Particularly amazing was to me how many different species of mistletoes we have seen in a single day. Unfortunately I do not know any of the names yet, but some of them are quite pretty, especially considering the unspectacular Viscum album we had in Germany.


This one parasitised on an Acacia...


...as did this green-flowered one here.


Certainly the most stunning species we found first on a Eucalyptus, but it did not seem to be very host-specific.


Finally, a single Allocasuarina tree had two species of mistletoes on it, of which I only show the weird leafless one. The other was similar to the first picture but with smaller flowers and long, slender leaves.

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