What Local Native Plant Is That?
In Bushland Near Your SchoolEcology
Ecology is the scientifc study of the interaction of organisms with their environment, including the physical environment and the other organisms living in it.
The photos on this page illustrate such complex interactions.
The top photo shows a Blue-faced Honeyeater Entomyzon cyanotis (family Meliphagidae) feeding on Euodia Melicope elleryana blossoms. The common prefix "Meli-" refers to honey in Greek.
Indeed owing much to the dominance of eucalypts, acacias, banksias, grevilleas and other nectar-producing plants which attract insects, the characteristic honeyeater family is diverse (with ~65 species) and widespread across the Australian landscape.
"They are responsible for pollinating many species of trees and plants while taking nectar from flowers with their brush-tipped tngues. The length of the bill indicates roughly the sort of flowers each bird prefers."
- Peter Slater, author of Australian Birds
The second photo shows a male Mistletoebird Diacaeum hirundinaceum feeding on the Swamp oak mistletoe Amyema cambagei on host plant Swamp oak Casuarina glauca.
The Mistletoebird is the only Australian representative of the Flowerpeckers family - a large group of small birds most abundant in SE Asia. Like the honeyeaters, the Mistletoebird has a tongue adapted to nectar-eating. However its prefered food is the fruit of mistletoes and it has evolved a specialized digestive system for it.
"The stomach is a blind sac, with an entrance that opens to admit food like insects requiring muscular digestion but is bypassed by more easily-digested food like mistletoe-fruit. Eaten in quantity, the flesh-covered stones are adeptly squeezed from their tough cases and swallowed.
They pass through the bird quickly ... and are still tacky when excreted, numerous seeds often being linked like beads in a glutinous thread that, assisted by the bird's restless switching about, adheres to a branch, where the seeds subsequently germinate. There is thus mutual dependence, the bird's movements across the continent being influenced by fruiting of mistletoes."
- Graham Pizzey, author of A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia
Being a small bird (10-11 cm), the female lacks the bright red colouration to avoid attention from predators and the larger honeyeaters which tend to be agressive.
Interestingly, many mistletoes, being semi-parasitic, "mimic" their host plants, as in this case, the Swamp oak mistletoe with elongated leaves resembling its host.
"The mistletoe will live in harmony with a healthy plant but can kill an ailing one."
- Stephanie Haslam, author of Noosa's Native Plants.
