Red Mistletoe

Just before the Christmas season leaves us thought I would share my first ever sighting of New Zealands Red Mistletoe, Peraxilla tetrapetala classed as an Endemic genus.

New Zealand has eight species of mistletoe, all but one endemic, the most conspcious are the beech mistletoes. They have large colourful flowers and are pollinated by birds and insects.

This area is beech forest and this lovely parasite has made its home on a mountain beech tree. Its special as while its living on the tree it is not harming the tree, not like some parasites. The bright red buds have yet to open.

It was cloudy with drifts of nor'west wind coming through the valley, warm with a few spots of rain. While the image is not good due to the wind and the fact the mistletoe was a little way away from me, I'm still blipping it as I was 'over the moon' - just love the native and endemic flowers of NZ.

I'm hoping to put some other links up of some of the alpine flowers and some shots of the tarn which I seem to be getting much better at taking each time I visit :)

My laptop needs a service, its ever so slow and jaggered with little messages saying 'not responding' - so frustrating! I'll get those links up as soon as I can and also hope to be back to commenting.

Hope your all enjoying the relaxed, taking it easy feeling of the Christmas/New Year period.

Cheers :)