DISTRIBUTION AND POPULATION-STRUCTURE OF THE LORANTHACEOUS MISTLETOESALEPIS-FLAVIDA, PERAXILLA-COLENSOI, AND PERAXILLA-TETRAPETALA WITHIN 2 NEW-ZEALAND NOTHOFAGUS FORESTS

Our results confirm the findings of an earlier study that suggested ni che partitioning in the way Alepis flavida and Peraxilla tetrapetala u tilise the available resources within the Nothofagus solandri canopy; Alepis flavida is almost exclusively an outer branch parasite while Pe raxilla tetrapetala occurs most often on inner branches and the host t runk. Peraxilla colensoi has a similar distribution within host trees to Peraxilla tetrapetala, except that it parasitises Nothofagus menzie sii. All three mistletoes showed non-random distribution patterns in t erms of the host trees they parasitise, being found more often on larg er trees. Larger host trees also carry a greater volume of mistletoe t han do smaller host trees. For Alepis flavida and Peraxilla tetrapetal a we found no evidence of host exclusion, whereby the presence of one mistletoe excludes the other mistletoe species establishing, observing the converse where host trees were more likely to have both mistletoe species present than expected. Peraxilla colensoi was found to be mor e common in Nothofagus-podocarp forest than in Nothofagus or Nothofagu s-Weinmannia-Metrosideros forest. Alepis flavida and Peraxilla tetrape tala population structures suggest that recruitment of young mistletoe plants has been relatively continuous over the past few years in the Nothofagus solandri forest we studied while the Peraxilla colensoi pop ulation structure showed an apparent absence of small plants suggestin g a lack of recruitment in the Nothofagus menziesii forest we studied.