''Amyema preissii'', commonly known as wireleaf mistletoe, is a species of

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. ...

, an

epiphytic An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

, hemiparasitic plant of the family

Loranthaceae Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites. The three terrestrial species are ''Nuytsia floribunda'' (the W ...

. It is native to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

where it has been recorded from all mainland states. The flowers are red and up to 26 mm long. The fruits are white or pink, globose and 8–10 mm in diameter. Its habitat is

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaf, leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is paral ...

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

and

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

where it is often found on wattles. On Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula its hosts include coast wirilda,

golden wattle ''Acacia pycnantha'', most commonly known as the golden wattle, is a tree of the family Fabaceae native to southeastern Australia. It grows to a height of and has phyllodes (flattened leaf stalks) instead of true leaves. Sickle-shaped, these ...

and

drooping sheoak To droop means to hang down, to sag, particularly if limp. Droop may refer to: Technical usage * Droop nose (aeronautics), an adjustable nose found on some supersonic aircraft * Droop quota, a type of quota for counting and transferring votes in ...

. Its sticky seeds are eaten and dispersed by

mistletoebird The mistletoebird (''Dicaeum hirundinaceum''), also known as the mistletoe flowerpecker, is a species of flowerpecker native to most of Australia (though absent from Tasmania and the driest desert areas) and also to the eastern Maluku Islands of ...

Description

Amyema Preissii is the only

with slender, needle-shaped leaves and all-red flowers lacking velvety covering, in groups of three. This distinctive mistletoe has feathery foliage, composed of soft, needle-like leaves (with pointed, but not sharp, tips). Foliage is either open and loosely branched or dense and very closely branched, with individual plants often displaying both variants. This Mistletoe presents abundant orange-red flowers, with smooth bases and buds, borne in groups of three. The closed, downward-hanging flower consists of five

Tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

, which are fused into a long tube with a bulbous end. The fruit is a dark pink, translucent, globular berry, 6-10mm long. A shiny cuticle covers the rind which surrounds a mucilaginou
viscid layer
occupying most of the volume of the fruit. In the centre lies the seed with a well-developed

Endosperm The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid (meaning three chromosome sets per nucleus) in most species, which may be auxin-driven. It surrounds the embryo and ...

and green embryo projecting toward the distal end of the fruit. Part of the

Hypocotyl The hypocotyl (short for "hypocotyledonous stem", meaning "below seed leaf") is the stem of a germinating seedling, found below the cotyledons (seed leaves) and above the radicle (root). Eudicots As the plant embryo grows at germination, it send ...

protrudes from the seed and this may elongate up to 10mm on germination. The apex is swollen even at this stage and within its tip the primary

Haustorium In botany and mycology, a haustorium (plural haustoria) is a rootlike structure that grows into or around another structure to absorb water or nutrients. For example, in mistletoe or members of the broomrape family, the structure penetrates t ...

is produced. Distinguished from otherwise simila
''Samphire mistletoe''
by longer leaves (at least 2cm long) and from Harrow-leaved,

Casuarina ''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the fami ...

, Amyema cambagei (Needle-leaved),

Allocasuarina luehmannii ''Allocasuarina luehmannii'' (buloke or bull-oak) is a species of ironwood tree native to Australia and its wood is the hardest commercially available as measured by the Janka Hardness Scale. Description The evergreen tree typically grows ...

and Amyema gibberula mistletoes by smooth flower buds arranged in groups of three and by translucent fruit.

Distribution and habitat

The family

is native to Australia, with 75 species of showy mistletoe currently recognised. A member of the

family, ''Amyema Preissii'' is among the most widespread of the Australian Mistletoes. It occurs in all mainland states and its preferred habitat is open forest, woodland and semi-arid woodland, particularly these types of habitats dominated by Acacia species. ''Amyema Preissii'' is highly host specific and shows a preference for Acacia victoriae'','' especially in Western Australia, as a functional host.

Etymology

Amyema derives from the Greek ''a'' (negative) and ''myeo'' (I, Initiate), referring to the genus being previously unrecognised. Named after a German botanist, Ludwig Preiss, who was a botanical collector in Western Australia.

Reproduction and dispersal

In Australia, Lorantheceous mistletoes depend on birds for pollination and dispersal, and provide important nectar and fruit resources to a large number of

nectarivore In zoology, a nectarivore is an animal which derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of the sugar-rich nectar produced by flowering plants. Nectar as a food source presents a number of benefits a ...

and

frugivore A frugivore is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance an ...

birds. ''Amyema Preissii'' is dispersed by at least two species of frugivorous birds; especially the

. Seedlings establish successfully or die within three months. Survivors normally grow rapidly and flower eighteen months later, producing fruit at three years old, although under ideal conditions seedlings can develop into a mature, fruiting plant in just nine months. After maturing, they fruit annually until death. Lifespan is a maximum of around seventeen years. Mistletoes have no seed bank and must be dispersed on host branches with well-defined characteristics to have a chance of survival. To aid with seed dispersion onto host branches the mistletoe’s seeds are incredibly sticky because they are covered with a glue-like substance called viscin that helps them stick to whatever they fall on.

References

preissii Flora of New South Wales Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (state) Eudicots of Western Australia Parasitic plants Epiphytes Plants described in 1895 {{Santalales-stub