Norton, D. A.; Ladley, J. J.; Sparrow, A. D. 1997. Development of non-destructive age indices for three New Zealand loranthaceous mistletoes. New Zealand Journal of Botany 35: 337-343.
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 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.