Photo of a gloved hand holding several large bunches of mistletoe. Wooded area in the background.

#Mistletoes are partially parasitic to the trees where they live, but they are also a keystone species in their ecosystems. The mistletoes play important roles in forest ecosystems for trees, birds, & insects.
They do NOT need to be removed!
Read: beautifulnativeplants.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-...

The cover of the April 2025 issue of the American Journal of Botany, featuring a photo of the endangered Nipomo Lupine (Lupinus nipomensis) flowering in its extant habitat. [Photo Credit: Justin C. Luong.]

The latest issue of #AJB is now online at bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15372197...!

Check out these issue highlights at botany.org/file.php?fil....

#botany #plantscience #mistletoes #bryophytes #ferns #lycophytes #fossils #pollination

Summary bipartite network diagram showing mistletoe-host interactions across all Australian showy mistletoe genera. The top half displays host orders, each colored by major seed plant clade: asterid orders in shades of red, rosid orders in blue, basal eudicots in yellow, magnoliids in green, and conifers in brown. Dilleniales is marked in orange and Santalales in lime green. Tick marks represent increments of 100 observations.

Continental-scale interactions of Australian showy #mistletoes & their hosts

New #AJB research by Luis Y. Santiago-Rosario, Jordan Book & Sarah Mathews

doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany

Continental‐scale interactions of Australian showy mistletoes and their hosts Premise Showy mistletoes are obligate hemiparasites of woody plants. Host specificity is therefore a fundamental determinant of mistletoe diversity, persistence, geographic distribution, and abundan...

Did you know showy mistletoes are incredibly diverse, with host diversity varying by genus? Australia is a hotspot for mistletoes! Check out the taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of hosts for Australian showy mistletoes. 🌿 #Mistletoes #Australia

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#Holidays2024 #Mistletoes It's been shown that while mistletoes are partially parasitic to the trees where they live, they are also a keystone species in their ecosystems. They do NOT need to be removed!
Read my article, "The Magic of Mistletoes!" beautifulnativeplants.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-...