Muellerina flexialabastra facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Muellerina flexialabastra
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Santalales
Family:	Loranthaceae
Genus:	Muellerina
Species:	M. flexialabastra
Binomial name
Muellerina flexialabastra Downey & C.A.Wilson
Occurrence data from AVH
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The Muellerina flexialabastra, also known as the Hoop pine mistletoe, is a special type of plant. It's a hemiparasitic aerial shrub, which means it grows on other plants and gets some of its food and water from them, but it can also make some of its own food. This plant belongs to the Loranthaceae family, which is a group of flowering plants. You can only find this species in Queensland, Australia, meaning it is endemic there.

What Does It Look Like?

The Hoop pine mistletoe is a small, compact, and bushy plant. It usually grows in high-up rainforests that are either subtropical or a bit drier, found between Queensland and New South Wales.

Its flowers are quite interesting! They grow in a cluster called an inflorescence at the end of a stem. The flowers are pink to red and shaped like tubes. They often appear in pairs that bend strongly backwards, with one flower in the middle.

After the flowers, the plant produces oval-shaped fruits. These fruits are usually yellowish-green with red blotches and can be about 6 to 15 millimeters long.

How It Lives and Grows

The Hoop pine mistletoe mainly grows on a tree called the Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii). The Hoop pine acts as its host plant, providing the mistletoe with some of the things it needs to survive.

Even though it's a plant, some mistletoes are important for butterflies. However, the Hoop pine mistletoe isn't known to be a host plant for any specific butterfly species. Still, some butterflies that use a similar mistletoe, M. celastroides, might also visit this one.

Naming the Plant

This plant was first officially described and named in 2004. The scientists who gave it its name were Paul Downey and Carol Wilson. They named it Muellerina flexialabastra. This plant doesn't have any other scientific names, meaning there are no synonyms for it.

Images for kids

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  This map shows where the Hoop pine mistletoe has been found in Australia.