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Mistletoe varieties are unusual as they are arboreal parasites – instead of germinating on the ground they require a host species to live on. Professor David Norton, from the University of Canterbury’s Te Kura Ngahere/School of Forestry and author of The Tiromoana Bush Restoration Management Plan, said considering the exacting conditions required for their growth it was pretty special to have three mistletoe species in Tiromoana Bush. “So many factors have to come together to enable our rare native mistletoes to survive,” he said. “Birds are required to spread their seeds, and deposit them accurately onto specific native hosts for them to establish and grow.