Mistletoe Regrowth

Amyema lucasii
We were distressed to find, last summer, that some person unknown had been ripping the Lucas Mistletoe off our beautiful Leopard Ash tree. Various theories were propounded: that it was an piece of ordinary mindless vandalism; that it was the act of a “do-gooder” who believed that he or she was actually helping the tree; and that it was a case of theft by some greedy person who wanted the wood for wood-turning, and saw no reason not to steal public property.
Whatever the cause, it left a large branch looking bare and ugly, as it has no other leaf growth than that of mistletoes.

So it’s a relief to see it regrowing. We can expect the mistletoe to behave like any other plant after a severe pruning. It may miss flowering this season, but will be refreshed and look more beautiful than ever.


It has also been rather interesting to discover that the branch itself is still alive, despite the absence of any of its own leaves.
Meanwhile, the rest of the tree is demonstrating the ability that trees have, of killing off mistletoes when under stress. You will notice that it is carrying quite a few dead mistletoes. They were probably been killed off as the tree closed down the water supply to its smaller branches, something that all drought-hardy trees can do whenever they are stressed for lack of water.
I may be wrong, though. Mistletoes have a short life-span compared to that of trees like this one, and they may simply have reached their use-by date.
We have been noticing that this tree carried a rather heavy load of mistletoes, and wondering whether they were stressing the tree during the long drought. It seems we don’t have to worry, as Nature has taken care of the problem. We will probably see renewed vigour in the canopy as a result, and may be able to look forward to a beautiful flowering season this October.
Trish Gardner

Never mind the weather

Whatever the weather - and it wasn't bad this morning - it is always nice under the canopy in our scrub. Five of us were out working this morning.
We found a Parsonsia leichhardtii in flower.

[click on the photo to see the flower in detail.]
When you are visiting, have a look at the corky bark on the vine.
The Silver Croton is also in bud and, above us while we had smoko, we found the Scrub Wilga in flower.

Down in the creek the native plumbago is doing well.

Have you had a look at the Mistletoes on the Flindersia on the NW corner?

Spring flowers, birds and butterflies

Two mistletoes are flowering beautifully at Franke scrub this week.

Lucas's mistletoe (Amyema lucasii) is making a great show with its bright yellow flowers, on our favourite leopard ash (Flindersia collina). The Flindersia itself is also flowering, though only
moderately this year.
And the "variable mistletoe", Amyema congener was quite conspicuous.

This plant loves growing on the Boonaree (Alectryon diversifolium) with its holly-like leaves. However it also grows on several other species in the scrub.The flowers on our local Amyema congener are a darker shade of red than the more common variety seen elsewhere.
Expect to see honeyeaters coming for the nectar from these flowers - and, later in the year, mistletoe birds coming for the fruits. Those special butterflies, the beautiful jezebels, which depend on mistletoes for their survival, are beginning to appear in the scrub again as the
weather warms up.
The sandalwoods (Santalum lanceolatum) under the leopard ash are in bud, so we can expect to see flowers there over the next few weeks. It looks as though they will be putting out a good crop of their dark red (edible but please don't eat them) fruits this year.
Trish

A prowl in early August found -

We didn't have enough time at our working bee last week for a good prowl around in the scrub to see what was there. There were a few things worthy of comment, however.

Two more plants to tick off, on our original plant list - native nettles, Urtica incisa, and native spinach, Tetragonia tetragonioides, which hadn't been recently confirmed.

Two new species to add to the list.
Further poking about in the scrub turned up a second new vine for our list, the Burney Vine,
Malaisia scandens, and Variable Mistletoe, Amyema congener, on a Scrub Boonaree, Alectryon diversifolium.
This mistletoe is just coming into flower, confirming my ID with its characteristic green and red flowers. Our plants are a little unusual in that the red bases of the flowers are a very deep shade of red.

I collected a chrysalis off one of the mistletoes, expecting it to of a jezabel butterfly, (as this species normally breeds on mistletoes). Sure enough, the adult emerged a few days later and was a beautiful black Jezabel, Delias nigrina.

Other finds:

Scrub Wilga, Geijera salicifolia, is in bud, and will soon be in flower. Don't forget to crush a leaf and enjoy the fragrance as you go past.

Bead Bush, Spartothamnella juncea, thick with its little orange fruits.

Spiny Acalypha Acalypha capillipes, in flower. Not particularly showy,
but nonetheless interesting to see.

The bright blue fruits of Elaeocarpus obovatus are scattered about on the forest floor, still quite fresh.
[contributed by Trish]

Leopard Ash and mistletoe

Flindersia collina October 2006
We are here on the fifth Wednesday of the month.


Amyema lucasii Lucas's Mistletoe growing on the Leopard Ash.
Photos - Trish October 2006