Follow up to yesterday posting.I search for that mistletoe plant.
There are so many of it at the mango tree at my neighbor's backyard across a stream. You can easily recognize it with the color contrast, light green / yellowish compare to dark green mango leave.
Until yesterday, I consider 'dedalu' as as a pest. Parasitic plant that kills trees. I have removed a few of them from a mango tree in front of my house.
Now that I know a pest to another can be a food and of value to others. God creates things for a reason, we human have to study it and appreciate it.
From Wikipedia."A broad array of animals depend on mistletoe for food, consuming the leaves and young shoots, transferring pollen between plants, and dispersing the sticky seeds".
"Thus, rather than being a pest, mistletoe can have a positive effect on biodiversity, providing high quality food and habitat for a broad range of animals in forests and woodlands worldwide".
This is a Malay proverb, that only highlight a negative aspect of mistletoe:-"Seperti dedalu api hinggap ke pohon kayu: hinggap ke batang, batangnya mati; hinggap ke ranting, rantingnya patah".
Meaning:- The evildoer will destroy the good person.
I got the name after searching the Net.
Dendrophthoe pentandra, same picture here.
1 comment:
Hi there
I was searching for the name of this parasitic plant too as it suddenly started to sprout from my pomegranate tree! At first I thought it was new leaves but my husband told me that the new "sprouts" are of a totally different plant. I want to know if I should snip the sprouts off. While I do admit that it is going to help the biodiversity of the garden, it will kill my pomegranate tree if I am not careful. I think I shall snip the sprouts off. Thanks for your post. Now I know it is called Dedalu!
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