Now we’re at the tail-end of the mistletoe season, with seed-planting almost over, I’ve been having a look at several sites where mistletoe-laden trees are dying.  And getting asked “is mistletoe the killer?”. It isn’t, of course, as it needs its host to be alive.  But it can cause host death, inadvertently, if there’s too much of it relative to the host.  So it’s not a killer, but it can cause death.  I hope that’s cleared things up. […]

Recently I’ve been spending rather too much time examining mistletoe berries – they’re more interesting than you might think (no really, they are…). And noticing a lot of insect activity, especially where there are groups of 3 or more berries – which fit together to create lots of complex little niches to shelter in.  In late February many of these berry groups were infested with small instars of some bug or other – difficult to say what, […]