Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
Another couple photographs from Mexico today, courtesy of David Tarrant – thanks again, David!
Parrot-flower mistletoe is a member of the plant family Loranthaceae, the largest of the “mistletoe families”. Psittacanthus relies on birds twice in its life-cycle: once for pollination and again for dispersal of seeds (the birds eat the fruit and defecate the seeds on branches).
Though this particular plant is not parasitizing a conifer, the best information online on “Psittacanthus in Mexico” that I can find is a chapter by the same name in Mistletoes of North American Conifers (PDF), a cooperative technical report by scientists in USA, Mexico and Canada.
To most of us, mistletoe is a bundle of odd green leaves with clear-white berries sold for fun at the holidays. THIS mistletoe, however is AMAZING.
I traveled to the Yucatan' in 1980 and was totally flummoxed at what an orange-flowering tree might be. In fact, it was a stout gumbo-limbo (Bursera) festooned with flowering Psittacanthus!
Great flashback. Thanks to all.
Mike Bush
awesome
are there any old prints
martin heade would have
painted this one i just
am impressed with the photo
are they sold in stores
come christmas or on the
do not touch list
thank you
Beautiful flower, vista de lejos es similar a Pyrostegia ignea.
can u give me any information about the relationship between sunbirds and these plants???
¿tienes información sobre el uso medicinal sobre esta planta? ¿Sabes donde la puedo conseguir?
Gracias,
This is Psittacanthus calyculatus. You can see more photos of this species (and others in the genus) on the Parasitic Plant Connection
http:www.parasiticplants.siu.edu