When is a tree not a tree...?

[Amelanchier]

When its 70% hemi-parasite??

 

Found this Viscum album / Malus spp. the other day (sorry for the phonecam photo quality).

 

Not much of the host left really - second shot shows the comparative thickness of the host branches / parasite stems.

 

Barchams will be cultivating them as street trees after this - pruned once a year by local residents... Think of the savings.

 

[log supplier]

nice mistletoe,,, bet it looks good before the residents get at it..

[Stephen Blair]

hi tony,sorry to sound a bit thick, but could you explain to me in laymans terms what has happened here, i get the rough jist of it but i wouldnt be able to explain it to someone else mate.

[Will Hinchliffe]

Thats really cool Tony. Now is about the time to plant mistletoe seeds under the bark of trees if you have some.

[David Humphries]

Thats really cool Tony. Now is about the time to plant mistletoe seeds under the bark of trees if you have some.

 

Tried that 6 or 7 years ago at work.

 

Wasn't successful.

We got a heap of seeds and branches from an veteran avenue of Limes that was felled at Hampton Court.

 

Tried inserting seeds at different heights of our Lime canopies, and grafting the branches, all to no avail.

 

We've got absolutely no mistletoe in the local vicinity.

 

 

 

 

Great find Tony.

 

 

 

 

 

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[High Scale]

That is amazing.

 

I was going to say, when it's a fridge!

 

But I stopped myself.

[Amelanchier]

hi tony,sorry to sound a bit thick, but could you explain to me in laymans terms what has happened here, i get the rough jist of it but i wouldnt be able to explain it to someone else mate.

 

I'll try - I was once told that you can't ever say you know something unless you can explain it to a layman.

 

A Mistletoe seed has found itself in a great spot on the Apple - a passing bird crapped it out in the main union and the seed grew using the bird crap as nutrients until it managed to establish a specialised root (called a haustorium) through the bark and into the water carrying vessels and nutrient tubes of the Apple. The Mistletoe then takes what water and nutrients it needs from the Apple without giving anything back (though some think there might be some going back to help keep the host alive).

 

Mistletoe is termed a hemi-parasite because it can produce a little of its own food through photosynthesis (hence the evergreen leaves).

 

In this case I suspect the owners have encouraged the Mistletoe by pruning the Apple a bit too hard and a bit too regularly.

 

That help??

[Stephen Blair]

haustorium, what a great word tony. thanks for that. now i can pass that onto someone else. when i have new guys out, i tell one of them what to do, and tell him he has to explain to the next. they listen a lot more and get a grasp quicker, and also feel they have more input to the job. especially good when rigging and using a turfer.thanks a lot mate

[Khriss]

Try rubbing them in with birdshit, I believe that is how nature intended them to go in ?

K

[Tom D]

If you find yourself in Paris, visit Pere Lachaise Cemetry, Its a pretty cool place anyway and many of the trees have Misletoe, At least I'm pretty sure thats what it was, they are quit big trees and it was mostly at the tops. There was lots of it though.

 

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=pere%20lachaise%20cemetery%20paris%20france&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

 

Its also the final resting place of Jim Morrison.