Thanks folks, over & out from me, @CookeJulia. I'll leave you with this picture of mistletoe leaves with pupating caterpillars. Some butterflies (Delias and Ogyris sp) lay eggs on mistletoe leaves for their offspring to feed on. Why might mistletoes leaves might make good food?

I have used this in teaching (lectures). Student can feel overwhelmed by all the new information, then as a group smash this quiz and realise they know more than they think!.

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Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed the discussions since September, and thank you to @CookeJulia for leading this evening. If you have been inspired to read more ecology stuff, please do join @BES_TLSIG (free) or join @BritishEcolSoc (£30.50 with the code)

Here are the answers #ChatEcology

We are currently doing some research about mistletoes in Australia, which are purported to mimic their hosts, but this hasn’t been comprehensively tested. Can you help us by playing this game? #ChatEcology.

There are quite a few quick guides: I’ve enjoyed reading the one on Bioluminescence and Peppered moths and Seagrass meadows

Last one for 2022-23, how can/will you use this new knowledge in your classroom?. #ChatEcology

The QuickGuide about parasitic plants includes lots of term to describe parasitic plants. Have a go at describing mistletoe in the UK: #ChatEcology

Perhaps students will have seen rafflesias in nature documentaries? It is amazing that they take all their water, nutrients incl. carbon from their hosts, yet make the biggest single flowers of all plants! The Green Planet exert:

Have you come across this quick guides before? Do you think they are beneficial for subject knowledge enhancement? . #ChatEcology

Parasitic plants pop up in exams but. What do your students think about with parasitic plants? Do they confuse insectivous ones with parasites? Do they know any? Why do some students not notice them?. #ChatEcology

You shared a great picture @BeaulieuBio of mistletoe in France. Visiting friends in Spain, I discovered there is a mistletoe that occurs in olive trees - news to me! It is Viscum cruciatum, in the same genus as the mistletoe that occurs in the UK.

@CookeJulia @CurrentBiology Perhaps, but it might be fine - just in a bit of a drought, when the host loses leaves, but the mistletoe doesn't. I'll make sure I drive past next time in that part of Australia and see how it is doing!.

We hope you enjoyed the short read on parasitic plants and developed a little more knowledge. So lets find out. Remember to use the hashtag #ChatEcology

T-2 mins for tonight's chat with @CookeJulia about parasitic plants and the usefulness of the QuickGuide series in @CurrentBiology:

Fantastic @leysbiotutor . 5 minute warning for chat tonight on parasitic plants led by @CookeJulia . #ChatEcology.

Join me tonight at 8:30 BST. Some of my research is on mistletoes - that's me below with a very large Australian mistletoe - but there are lots of other parasitic plants. This @CurrentBiology QuickGuide is super:

It's @CookeJulia here, looking forward to a chat about parasitic plants tonight. I've a quiz to help with classification skills & a citizen science game to play. Did you know there are mistletoes that grow on mistletoes? Parasites on parasites! See here:

Hopefully you've seen the @SEBiology Christmas Lecture to get you in the zone #ChatEcology.

Tomorrow we will be discussing this short guide, there's still time to read it!.