Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Amyema bifurcata (Benth.) Tiegh.


Epiphyte
Mistletoe
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Leaves, Flowers, Habit. © CSIRO
Leaves, Fruit. © CSIRO
Leaves and bud. CC-BY J.L. Dowe
Family

Tieghem, P.E.L. van (1894) Bull. Soc. Bot. France 41: 507.

Stem

Aerial stem-parasitic shrub. Plants pendulous, epicortical runners absent.

Leaves

Leaf blades linear, lanceolate, sometimes falcate, often sub-opposite, about 11-15.5 x 1-2 cm, petioles about 1-2.5 cm long. Venation longitudinal, parallel and 3-5-veined.

Flowers

Flowers borne in dyads or triads, flowers +/- sessile, triads in 2 or 3-rayed umbels. Umbel rays about 10-15 mm long. Primary peduncle slender, about 15-40 mm long. Pedicels about 3-7 mm long, clothed in rusty tomentum. Calyx about 0.7 mm long, devoid of any obvious lobes. Corolla about 22-30 mm long, ovary about 3-5 mm long. Calyx and corolla clothed in rusty brown tomentum. Anthers about 3.5-4 mm long, staminal filaments about 1-5 mm long attached to the upper half of the corolla. Style 25-30 mm long, stigma terminal, globular.

Fruit

Fruit cream to orange when ripe, globose to obpyriform, about 9-10 x 9 mm, sparsely clothed in rusty scales. Seeds about 7 x 5 mm, radicle green, slightly protruding. Embryo green, about 5-6 mm long. Cotyledons about 3 mm long. Radicle 2-3 mm long, tuberculate.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Australia. Occurs in WA, NT, CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as central NSW. Usually in eucalypt forest but sometimes found in rain forest. Altitudinal range in northern Australia from near sea level to 800 m.

Natural History & Notes

Food plant for the larval stage of the Scarlet Jezabel, Silky Jewel, Silky Azure, Satin Azure, Orange-tipped Azure, Southern Purple Azure and Northern Purple Azure Butterflies. Braby , M. (2000).

Synonyms
Loranthus bifurcatus Benth., Flora Australiensis 3: 393(1867), Type: North Is., Sir Edward Pellew Group & Groote Is., 17 - 25 Dec. 1802 & 15 Jan. 1803, R. Brown s.n.; Syn: BM, CANB, MEL.
RFK Code
6002
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