''Dendrophthoe vitellina'', commonly known as long-flowered- or apostle mistletoe, is a

hemiparasitic A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...

plant of the

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. ...

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 ...

. The genus ''Dendrophthoe'' comprises about 31 species spread across tropical

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, and

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 ...

. Despite being collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander in 1788, and depicted in ''

Banks' Florilegium ''Banks' Florilegium'' is a collection of copperplate engravings of plants collected by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander while they accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage around the world between 1768 and 1771. They collected pla ...

'', it was not until 1860 that it was described by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

as ''Loranthus vitellinus'' after being collected near Ipswich, and renamed by

Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem (; 19 April 1839 – 28 April 1914) was a French botanist born in Baillleul in the département of Nord. He was one of the best known French botanists of the latter nineteenth century. Life Van Tieghem's f ...

in 1895.

Description

It grows as shrubby plant, with either a spreading or pendent (drooping) habit, from a tree branch or trunk. It has external roots, and hairy new growth maturing to smooth branches and foliage. The leaves are spear- or oval-shaped with a blunt apex, and measure long and wide. The inflorescences are composed of 5 to 20 smaller flowers. The flowers are generally yellow or orange with red tips, though some northern populations have redder flowers. They are covered in a fine fur. Flowering is followed by the development of an egg-shaped fruit long and red to yellow in colour, which contains a single seed in a sticky coating. The similar-looking smooth-flowered mistletoe ('' D. glabrescens'') has smooth flowers and leaves broader than in width, and is found west of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

Distribution and habitat

The range is from far north Queensland along the east coast of Australia through New South Wales and into Victoria. In northern New South Wales, it extends inland to the

Nandewar Range The Nandewar Range, a mountain range that is part of the Great Dividing Range, is located in the North West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. The range is situated approximately east of the township of Narrabri. John Oxley was the ...

In Victoria it occurs to the east of

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

East Gippsland East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres (14%) of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114. Australian Bureau of Statistics2006 Census Community Profile Series: East Gippsland (Sta ...

. It generally grows on trees of the family Myrtaceae in open

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, but also on ''

Eucalyptus grandis ''Eucalyptus grandis'', commonly known as the flooded gum or rose gum, is a tall tree with smooth bark, rough at the base fibrous or flaky, grey to grey-brown. At maturity, it reaches tall, though the largest specimens can exceed tall. It is f ...

'' in forest on the fringes of

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

Ecology

At least 66 native plant species from 16 families (predominantly the genera ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

'', ''

Angophora ''Angophora'' is a genus of nine species of trees and shrubs in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Endemic to eastern Australia, they differ from other eucalypts in having juvenile and adult leaves arranged in opposite pairs, sepals reduced to projec ...

'' and ''

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They range in size ...

'') have been recorded as host plants for ''Dendrophthoe vitellina'', and in addition, a number of exotic species also. It has been recorded on an exotic plane tree, ''

Platanus × acerifolia ''Platanus'' × ''acerifolia'', ''Platanus'' × ''hispanica'', or hybrid plane, is a tree in the genus ''Platanus''. It is often known by the Synonym (taxonomy), synonym London plane, or London planetree. It is usually thought to be a Hybrid (b ...

''. Growing on a small red bloodwood (''

Corymbia gummifera ''Corymbia gummifera'', commonly known as red bloodwood, is a species of tree, rarely a mallee, that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups o ...

'') is hazardous for the host species. ''Dendrophthoe vitellina'' is the main host plant for caterpillars of the marbled line blue butterfly (''

Erysichton palmyra ''Jameela palmyra'', the marbled blue, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in along the coast of Australia (from Queensland to New South Wales), as well as in Indonesia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The wingspan is about ...

''), while caterpillars of other butterfly species the black jezebel ('' Delias nigrina''), red-banded jezebel ('' D. mysis''), narcissus jewel ('' Hypochrysops narcissus''), silky jewel ('' H. digglesii''), dull oakblue (''

Arhopala centaurus ''Arhopala centaurus'', the centaur oakblue or dull oakblue, is a species of lycaenid or blue butterfly found in India and southeast Asia to the Philippines. Description Image:Centaur Oakblue Nilasera centaurus at Jayanti, Duars, West Bengal ...

''), black-spotted flash ('' Hypolycaena phorbas''), trident pencil-blue ('' Candalides margarita''), dark purple azure ('' Ogyris abrota''), golden azure ('' O. ianthis''), orange-tipped azure ('' O. iphis''), sapphire azure ('' O. aenone''), southern purple azure ('' O. genoveva'') and northern purple azure ('' O. zosine'') also eat the plant. The fleshy fruit is consumed by the

brushtail possum The brushtail possums are the members of the genus ''Trichosurus'' in the Phalangeridae, a family of marsupials. They are native to Australia (including Tasmania) and some small nearby islands. Unique among marsupials, they have shifted the hypax ...

(''Trichosurus vulpecula''). The seed immediately begins to germinate and soon penetrates the vascular system of the tree and creates a physiological connection with the

Xylem Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants, the other being phloem. The basic function of xylem is to transport water from roots to stems and leaves, but it also transports nutrients. The word ''xylem'' is derived from ...

of the new host. From that point, the seedling begins to obtain water and mineral nutrients from the host.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5256811 vitellina Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Parasitic plants Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller