Mutant Tree

[silentC]

I was walking past this tree this morning and noticed something odd. My old man reckons it's a casurina or she-oak. It has pine-like needles, which you can see in picture 1. The trunk is smooth with whitish patches on it. There are a few of them on the property and they seem to grow strange twisted branches. The weird thing about this one is that it has a clump of leaves (as opposed to needles) growing out of one branch. Is this normal and does anyone know what sort of tree this actually is?

[Vernonv]

I'm not sure what the tree is but the leaf thing looks like a mistletoe of some sort i.e. a parasite (if that's the correct description).

[silentC]

OK, I did consider that possibility but it's done a bloody good job of grafting itself on if that's the case. The only clue that it might be a separate plant (apart from the different leaves) is a tennis ball sized bulge in the branch, which you can see in the last photo.

Trouble is, it's about 6 metres off the ground, so I can't get a close look at it, but I guess you are probably right. So I'll call Guiness Book of Records and tell them not to bother coming over...

[Barry_White]

It looks like a mistletoe to me also. They get that ball like section that is basically their root system that feeds of the host tree. Never seen on on Pine tree though, they are usually on eucalyptus tree.

[Vernonv]

Yeah, we have a lot of stringybark trees at our place and most would have at least 1 (normally more) mistletoe making themselves at home in their branches.

Not sure what long term effect a mistletoe has on it's host plant, if any.

[Barry_White]

Not sure what long term effect a mistletoe has on it's host plant, if any.

Not far from you Vernonv and we have that here also. Not just Stringy but also Yellow Box and Red gum as well. If there is enough mistletoe's on them it will eventually kill the host tree. We have several down here that have died from mistletoe.

I had a beautiful red gum tree that was full of mistletoe and was just about ready to cark it and the RTA were parking their equipment on my place and they had a cherry picker and a tree shredder here and my wife conned them into cutting all the mistletoe's out of the tree and after about 18 months the recovery of the tree was remarkable. It is now a beautiful shade tree and growing profusely.

We also had a huge pile of mulch for the garden.

[Paul B]

I remember seeing on burkes backyard years ago, he was saying that sometimes there's a mutation in the growing tip of a new branch and that cuttings can be taken, grown, and a new variety of plant has made it's way into the world. He showed and example of a conifer that had a mutant branch, he cut it off, propogated the cuttings and had a new variety of conifer that had a different growth habit to the original tree. I think the new one was a prostrate variety - good for ground cover, the original tree was over 10 meters tall. He said if you ever see this phenomenon that you should show a picture of it to a horticulturalist, there might be a dollar in it if the new variety is something the buying public wants.

Probably not many people interested in mistletoe though, if thats what it is.

[silentC]

OK thanks, I've looked up mistletoes and it does look like one of them. Not sure of the future for this tree. It's in an area that is going to be thinned out, so maybe it will go anyway. Or maybe if it survives the mistletoe I should let it live....