EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Chinese Lantern on Southern Beech

Ñire or Antarctic Beech (Nothofagus antarctica), Family Nothofagaceae
with hemiparasite Chinese Lantern (Misodendrum penctulatum), Family Misodendraceae
Torres del Paine, Chile

Explanation:  There is more than meets the eye in the scene of lovely green foliage.  

We are on the road just outside Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia of southern Chile.  These are woodlands of Ñire or Antarctic beech -- southern beech, a deciduous species found in the temperate rainforests of southern Chile and Argentina.  

But the trees in the front in this image are also sporting growths of Chinese Lantern ... a hemiparasite that has a mistletoe growth form on various species of southern beech including Ñire.
  

Chinese Lantern, also known by its scientific name Misodendrum penctulatum, is a hemiparasite in that its seeds, dispersed by the wind, first germinate on the tree's branches and penetrate its vascular tissues to derive water and nutrients.  This is the parasite part.  The Chinese Lantern then converts the water and nutrients into food by use of its own chlorophyll that converts sunlight into energy.  This is the hemi part, as true parasitic plants are achlorophyllous, that is, they lack chlorophyll and derive all nutrients, energy, and food from their host plants.

In some locations, entire woodland stands of southern beech are infested by the hemiparasite, as shown above.

The genus name of this hemiparasite, Misodendrum, is from the Greek miso meaning on top of, and dendrum meaning tree.  Yup, that's where they're found.