There’s a new mistletoe species here at Mistletoe Towers, all the way from Africa originally. Though this particular set of seeds came from, er, Malvern. It is Viscum minimum, related to our familiar Viscum album, but, as the name suggests, a much reduced plant. Tiny actually. I haven’t ever grown it before, though have seen several specimens grown indoors. For it isn’t an outdoor species, not here in Europe, as its hosts are tropical succulents. […]
Biodiversity , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Gardening , Mistletoe , Other parasites
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A back garden parasitic plant safari
Parasites in lockdown – a round-up of the parasitic plants I’m growing in our garden this year, so far: Not just mistletoe, but also dodders (two species), broomrape (one species – another due soon) and yellow rattle. And an aspiration for Lousewort and a hope of Toothworts (two). Firstly mistletoe, obviously. There’s lots of that (I wonder why?!). These are young growths, about 4 or 5 years old, planted by Blackcaps on an already mistletoe-laden […]
berries , Biodiversity , Gardening , Media , Mistletoe , Other parasites , Science
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Growing your own, for the common good, in NZ
My recent post about the new mistletoe-eating bird in Borneo reminded me of several other exotic (to us in Britain) mistletoe stories. One particular story from last year came to mind – a project in New Zealand where local residents were being given mistletoe seeds in an effort to re-establish local mistletoe species. The project, based in Christchurch, involved the collection of seeds by local ecologists and then the doling out of 20 seeds each […]