This is an enjoyable thread started by Gary Blond (did he know what he might
spark off?).
I just love Mistletoes and I hope David Watson will see some of the thread.
A few comments from my position of great interest and ignorance (corrections
welcome!):
1. Whoops! I should have written in my first response in the thread about Peter
Fuller's Mistletoe brainteaser. "Since there is lots of FOSSIL mistletoe in
Tasmania but no Mistletoebirds I reckon you could work that out yourself ! (OK
"lots" is an exaggeration).
Haven't heard of fossil Mistletoebirds, though. But the contributions by Peter
Ewin and Lawrie Conole about Lyrebirds in Tassie and species turnover make me
wonder if there could be any.
Actually I got the idea of Mistletoebirds being recent arrivals from a famous
ornithologist, including his suggestion (as I recall it) that they did not
carry enough calories to cross the Bass Strait. I'd love to hear from someone
about mistletoe diversity from north Oz to south and the explanations
(particularly given the marvellous mistletoe diversity in the north outlined by
Syd Curtis) and the timing of this evolution.
2. Michael Hunter mentioned the WA Christmas Tree. There is a great website
which has extensive plant relationships (and like all websites could be "wrong"
or not up to date - given the way those marvellous taxonomists keeping on
changing our appreciations). See:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/family%20Loranthaceae
It includes the WA Christmas Tree as the sole member of the Genus Nuytsia (and
parasitic on grasses). (KOFGAS is a way of remembering Kingdom, Order, Family,
Genus And Species.)
(Incidentally it shows, as members of the Order Santalales, the Santalaceae
family as well as the Loranthaceae and Viscaceae families. The Santalaceae
include the root parasitic Ballarts which, together with the mistletoes, are
host plants of Delias and other Australian butterfly caterpillars (Wood White
and Imperial White down here). I'd say something about phylogeny and ontogeny
if I knew enough !)
3. Lastly, so I am not the only person who is mistaken. The European mistletoes
are parasitic (or parasitoid) on a range of deciduous trees. The one I know
from England grows on oak trees and the Druid priests were said to
ceremoniously cut it down with a sickle at the Winter Equinox.
4. We have a few records down here of Mistletoebirds feeding on other drupes,
both exotic, being Coprosma (Mirror-bush) and Boxthorn. Suspicions of them
taking Cotoneaster and the indigenous Common Boobialla.
And I can still get Mistletoe at Xmas !
Michael Norris
Hampton, Vic
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