Beach and Foreshore Plants of the Capricorn Coast Mistletoe Mistletoe grows on a wide range of trees throughout Australia, except Tasmania, and can eventually prove fatal to them where infestation is heavy, though damage more commonly only results in growth reduction. All mistletoes are hemiparasites, bearing evergreen leaves that carry out some photosynthesis on their own, relying on the host mainly for water and the mineral nutrients it carries. While historically often considered a pest that kills trees and devalues natural habitats, mistletoe has recently become recognized as an ecological keystone, an organism that has a disproportionate influence over its community. A broad array of animals depend on mistletoe for food, consuming the leaves and young shoots as well as transferring pollen between plants and dispersing the sticky seeds Many mistletoes continue to flower in drought or during winter, when few other blossoms are available. Indeed, they are often the only local source of nectar and pollen during hard times. In Australia the Mistletoebird is highly adapted to a diet of mistletoe berries and plays an important role in the distibution of Mistletoe seeds, the berries pass quickly through the birds' digestive system and the sticky seeds are excreted onto branches, the seed can then germinate quickly into a new plant.             A Brush Mistletoe Amylotheca dictophleba growing on a silky oak on the road to the Capricorn Resort   A variety with succulent leaves growing thickly on Grey Mangoves near Cooee Bay Go to Mangrove Mistletoes                       A yellow flowered species Dendrophthoe glabrescens growing on a Melalueca along the road to the Capricorn Resort   A green variety growing among bushes along Barry Street.