Dear Friends, In my observation many Loranthus species are increasing drastically on trees in deciduous forests of S.Karnataka and on avenue trees in Bangalore, from the past 3 years !
Have any of you observed the same ? in other cities, towns, forests.....in other parts of our country ? Out here observation is..........in the wild trees most affected are Phyllanthus emblica etc...... and in Bangalore they seem to thrive well on Peltophorum pterocarpum, Bauhinia purpurea,Drypetes roxburghii, lots and lots of others and.....even Grevillea robusta etc. As Giby ji pointed out it could be openness of canopies...one of the factors.......and maybe...... Global warming ? Erratic rainfall ? Increase in bird population ? or so many others we dont understand......... Fanua and Flora make up our fragile ecosystems and we need a deeper understanding i think........to our limited capacity,, as far as the human brain can go. Something to think of.........just like how Lantana camara, Eupatorium, Parthenium invaded and now its got naturalised. Such phenomena...i think we cannot do anything about it, much practically.....to 'control' (unnaturally)..... but can we at least understand the underlying processes ? Pl provide inputs..... Warm Regards.
