Common name:
Mistletoe

Family name:
Loranthaceae

Botanical name:
Amyema miquelii

Flowering/fruiting season:
Fruit ripens winter and early spring

Location:
Woodlands (on Eucalyptus spp. )

Use:

• Food, medicine
• Sticky fruits were eaten (Flood, 1980:94)
• Records of Aborigines in Qld 'using Mistletoe leaves to line steam baths … also crushed leaves being steeped in water to make a potion for curing fever.' Probably in Vic. as well as Qld. (Zola & Gott, 1992:54)

Notes:
Fruits green, sausage-shaped c. 1 - 1.5 cm long (Hardwick, 2001:94)
Amyema miquelii Parasitic on E. melliodora (Yellow Box) in Aranda Bushland (FOAB, 1997:15)
Some overseas mistletoes are poisonous and 'as a precaution the seeds should not be chewed' (Cribb & Cribb, 1987:40)

Language names:
willbriggie, willbrogil : 'mistletoe' Wiradjuri (Baylis in Gott, 1995)

Horticulture :

Similar species:
4 Amyema spp. in ACT; also 2 Muellerina spp. parasitic on different hosts (see Burbidge & Gray, 1976)

Use code:
FRT