what mungee, the world’s biggest mistletoe, can teach us about treading lightly

Noongar Nation of southwestern Australia is residence to the world’s biggest parasitic plant, a mighty mistletoe that blooms each and every December. That is why it is normally identified as WA’s Christmas Tree. But it also goes by other names, mungee and moodjar. And it holds fantastic significance for Noongar men and women such as the Merningar men and women of the south coast.

Even though the distinctive biology and charisma of the species (Nuytsia floribunda) has been recognised by Classic Owners for millennia, such wealthy Indigenous understanding is barely identified to Western science. Our analysis group contains 3 generations of Merningar alongside non-Indigenous scientists. In our new analysis, we set out to discover mungee’s physiology, ecology and evolution from each Indigenous and Western science perspectives.

The plant’s potential to access a wide array of sources is exceptional, enabling it to prosper in the hostile, infertile, but biologically wealthy landscapes of southwestern Australia. This is also the case for Noongar men and women, whose standard diet plan reflects the biological richness of their Nation.

Mungee is a revered teacher to Noongar men and women, with lessons for us all about living sustainably and in harmony with a single yet another.

3 generations of the Merningar Knapp household have contributed to this analysis: (left to suitable) Harrison Rodd-Knapp, Jessikah Woods, her grandmother Lynette Knapp and mother Shandell Cummings, with flowering mungee close to Waychinicup, on Merningar Nation.
Alison Lullfitz, Author offered

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A sand-loving parasite

Nuytsia floribunda is widespread across Noongar Nation (Boodja) and identified to most Noongar as moodjar. But it is also known as mungee by Merningar and other southern Noongar groups. Becoming mainly Merningar, we get in touch with it mungee and use that term right here.

Mungee is a mistletoe tree that grows up to 10m tall in sandy soils. It is endemic to southwestern Australia, but widespread all through. The parasitic capability of the plant comes from very modified, ring-shaped roots (haustoria) that act like secateurs to mine other plants for water and nutrients.

We utilised “two way science” (cross-cultural ecology) solutions – such as a literature assessment, shared recording of visits on Nation, and an author workshop – to investigate mungee a lot more completely than would be doable by way of Western science alone.

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A revered teacher providing divine guidance

Like other Indigenous Australian understanding systems, Merningar lore is location-primarily based. It inextricably hyperlinks men and women, distinct locations, other organisms and non-living entities of Nation. Mungee tells distinct stories by way of exactly where it lives, the plants it lives with, and when it flowers.

The species is broadly held as sacred amongst Noongar peoples. For Merningar, it has the highest status of all plants. Mungee holds critical lore about how we as humans relate to each and every other and with the globe about us, equivalent to a cornerstone religious text such as the Christian Bible.

For Merningar, mungee is a strong medium that assists restless spirits move on to the afterlife, identified to us as Kuuranup. This enables these of us nevertheless living to be untroubled by their presence.

Senior elder Lynette describes mungee as her teacher, delivering guidance on how to exist in Merningar Boodja. The annual summer time flowers represent her ancestors returning to their Nation, reminding her to cherish and respect each her old men and women and her Boodja.

Lynette calls the ring-shaped haustoria of mungee her “bush lolly”. Below Merningar lore, digging for these sweet treats is not permitted when mungee is flowering. This is when bush lollies are scarce, so the rule is about living inside seasonal constraints.

The specialised ring-shaped haustorium of the mungee tree Nuytsia floribundataps into the sources of other plants.
Mike Shayne

An instance of living sustainably

Mungee mainly reproduces by cloning, sending out suckers up to 100m from the parent plant to generate identical copies. This outcomes in patches of mungee clones gathered collectively in tight-knit populations.

We saw parallels amongst patches of mungee and the communal kinship structures of Noongar society, exactly where household is a lot more critical than folks.

Prior to European settlement, extended Noongar households lived in largely separate groups, interconnected with other household groups as element of a wider geopolitical method. We see mungee as a botanical exemplar of placing neighborhood prior to folks, for the higher superior.

Mungee accesses water and nutrients by tapping into a wide variety of host plants. This diversity of hosts enables mungee to reside in a lot of unique landscapes. This parallels with the sophisticated, but frequently location-distinct understanding of Noongar peoples across their botanically wealthy Boodja, which has enabled use of a wide variety of standard plants.

Living a prosperous life inside environmental boundaries is accomplished by conservatively drawing upon a wide variety of sources. It delivers a lesson for all who reside in dry and infertile regions such as southwestern Australia.

Mungee in complete flower at Stirling Variety National Park, about 300km south-east of Perth.
Steve Hopper

A tree to be celebrated

Mungee’s vibrant orange flowers bring joy to all who witness their show for the duration of the celebratory summer time months in southwestern Australia. The plant’s distinctive biology, ingenuity and charisma has extended been recognised by Noongar peoples and their lore.

Prolific annual flowers are a memorial to the a lot of old men and women who have cared for their Boodja by way of millennia. They also remind us to shield the old peoples’ legacy.

To Merningar, mungee is a useful teacher and exemplar of prosperous biological (such as human) existence in the southwest Australian worldwide biodiversity hotspot. It has a lot to teach the rest of us, also.

Thynnid wasps (flower wasps) on a mungee flower at Torndirrup National Park, 10km south of Albany in WA.
Steve Hopper

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