Development of non-destructive age indices for three New Zealand loranthaceous mistletoes

Abstract

We investigated a variety of non-destructive measures as potential predictors of mistletoe age as determined anatomically for three mistletoe species, Alepis flavida, Ileostylus micranthus, and Tupeia antarctica. We show that the diameter of the host stem immediately below the haustorial attachment is consistently the best predictor of mistletoe age with R2 values of 0.622–0.849. We suggest that host branch diameter can be used in future studies of mistletoe population dynamics and other age-dependent aspects of mistletoe ecology without destructively sampling mistletoe populations as it provides a good indication of mistletoe age for the mistletoe-host pairs we studied. However, these relationships have been derived from single sites and hosts for each mistletoe species, suggesting caution when applying them at other sites or to other hosts. © 1997 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.