Further information ⁶

Bushy yellowish-green shrub growing on other trees with clusters of tiny green flowers and orange fruit. Leaves fleshy, variable in shape, 30-80mm long, in pairs on stalks that arise from a flattened section of the squareish stem. Roots creeping along host plant’s stem.
Habitat

Mainly a coastal and lowland species which rarely extends into upper montane forest. Prefers shrubland and secondary regrowth. This species shows some regional host specificity but nevertheless has been recorded from a wide range (nearly 300) of indigenous and exotic hosts. One of the few indigenous mistletoe's to regularly grow in urban situations.

Features: Woody, epiphytic much branched, bushy hemiparasite. producing multiple haustoria (these attaching at intervals long host branch) and epicortical, often spiraled roots. Leaves opposite, coriaceous. Petioles`5-50 mm long, flattened and slightly winged. lamina 30-60(-80) × 15-40(-68) mm, dark green to yellow-green, broadly elliptic, slightly ovate, ovate, obovate to rhomboid, base attenuate, apex obtuse to rounded. Inflorescences axillary, solitary of paired, in cymose panicles, these 10-15(-20) mm long with 8-9-12(-15) flowers arranged in threes. Flowers male, female or hermaphroditic (the dioecious condition most commonly seen when Ileostylus is parasitic on species of totara (Podocarpus spp.). Calyx cylindrical, presenting as an truncate rather obscure narrow rim 0.2 mm high. Petals 4, free, c.3-4 mm × 0.8-1.6 mm, greenish to yellow-green. Anthers 4, basifixed. Style contorted, usually initially coiled in middle, up to 3.0-4.5 mm long when uncoiled. Ovary 1-locular. Fruit a 1-seeded, 5-8 mm, yellow or orange, ellipsoid or globular (rarely ellipsoid-globular) berry. Seed 5.0-5.5 mm long, elliptic, rounded at both ends, terete.
Similar Taxa: Tupeia antarctica is often confused with Ileostylus. Ileostylus differs from Tupeia by its external rather than internal haustoria; having multiple haustoria and epicortical roots; by the styles of the flowers which are characteristically ‘bent’ rather than straight; by the yellow or orange rather than white or white spotted purple fruit; and by the young stems that are squarish rather than round (terete) in cross-section.

Flowering: September - December

Flower Colours: Green

Fruiting: December - July

http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/c/flora/factsheets/NZPCN_Species_858.pdf

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/16921893@N00/8111616462
2. (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/15693576323/
3. (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/14223735270/
4. (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/24803177775/
5. (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/16127597877/
6. (c) clairewebster, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• eFloras.org
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• New Zealand Plant Conservation Network
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• World Flora Online

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