Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Amyema pendula subsp. pendula

Flowers and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, ACT

Unripe fruit. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Paul Hadobas, between Bungendore and Braidwood

Plant showing attachment to the host branch. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, near Lake George

Common name

Drooping Mistletoe

Family

Loranthaceae

Where found

Parasitic on gum trees and wattles. Widespread.

Notes

Mistletoe to 1 m long, weeping. Plants attached to the host by a bulbous union, external runners absent. Fruit fleshy, sticky. Young shoots and flower clusters hairy with short brown hairs, the plants otherwise hairless. Leaves opposite or almost opposite each other, 10–44 cm long; 3–20 mm wide, green, tips usually pointed. Flowers 22–40 mm long, usually with 5-6 lobes, the lobes free from each other almost to the base when the flowers are fully open, rusty hairy outside, red within. Flowers in threes or fours, the central flower stalkless, the lateral flowers stalked. Flowering: throughout the year. Ripe fruit yellow-green, oval to oval, 10 mm long.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Amyema~pendula (accessed 3 January, 2021)