There seems to be a different relationship between possums and mistletoes
and that of some bird species and mistletoes.
As far as I can tell the definitive work (cited by David Watson in his
paper on Mistletoes as a Keystone resource) on the topic is by Nick Reid
"Pollination and seed dispersal of Mistletoes (Loranthaceae by birds in
Southern Australia" which forms a chapter in "The Dynamic Partnership Birds
and Plants in Southern Australia" by H A Ford and D C Payton.
While several species of birds appear to potentially act as pollinators
and/or seed dispersers Reid notes on p78 the possums ".. tend to destroy
flowers when feeding and are better regarded as flower predators than
pollinators.". He makes a similar comment about parrots and lorikeets (op
cit p68)
Martin
On 15 August 2013 10:43, Philip Veerman <> wrote:
> Yes, that "Brushtail Possums eat a great deal of Mistletoe" is one of the
> things mentioned by David Watson, at COG last night as a likely hypothesis
> that is especially relevant as one of the contributing factors to why there
> aren't mistletoes in Tasmania (or not many).
>
> Funny, a message from me and Sandra about this came through at the same
> time.
>
> Philip
>
> -----Original Message-----From:
> On Behalf Of brian
> fleming
> Sent: Thursday, 15 August 2013 8:40 AMTo:
> :
> [Birding-Aus] Fwd: Re: The value of Mistletoe
>
>
|
