Apostle mistletoe (Dendrophthoe vitellina)
Description
Dendrophthoe vitellina, commonly known as long-flowered- or apostle mistletoe, is a hemiparasitic plant of the Loranthaceae family of mistletoes. The genus Dendrophthoe comprises about 31 species spread across tropical Africa, Asia, and Australia. Despite being collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander in 1788, and depicted in Banks' Florilegium, it was not until 1860 that it was described by Ferdinand von Mueller as Loranthus vitellinus after being collected near Ipswich, and renamed by Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem in 1895. It grows as shrubby plant, with either a spreading or pendant (drooping) habit, from a tree branch or trunk. It has external roots, and hairy new growth maturing to smooth branches and foliage. The leaves are spear- or oval-shaped with a blunt apex, and measure 4–16 cm (1.5–6.5 in) long and 0.6–3 cm (0.24–1.18 in) wide. The inflorescences are composed of 5 to 20 smaller flowers. The flowers are generally yellow or orange with red tips, though some northern populations have redder flowers. They are covered in a fine fur. Flowering is followed by the development of an egg-shaped fruit 1–1.5 cm (0.39–0.59 in) long and red to yellow in colour, which contains a single seed in a sticky coating. The similar-looking smooth-flowered mistletoe (D. glabrescens) has smooth flowers and leaves broader than 3 cm (1 in) in width, and is found west of the Great Dividing Range.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Santalales
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Family: Loranthaceae
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Genus: Dendrophthoe
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