LEAFLETS OF PHILIPPINE BOTANY 



EDITED BY A. D. E. ELMER, A 



Vol. VI. Manila, P. I., November 29, 1913. Art. 98. 



LORANTHUS FROM MOUNT URDANETA 



by 



A. D. E. Elmer 



The genus Loranthus in the Philippines ranks more of 

 an alpine class of plants than of the low country or valley, 

 and is especially abundantly represented in the great forest 

 regions of Mindanao. These epiphytic and at least part pa- 

 rasitic plants must be able to replenish rapidly, since heavy 

 winds are quite destructive to them. Most of my mount 

 Urdaneta species of this group of plants were picked up from 

 the ground after a heavy storm. This destruction is especially 

 great in the higher altitudes or alpine places where the storms 

 or typhoons have a clear chance at them and where they 

 seem to be most numerous in individuals as well as in kind. 



Four years ago the writer collected in the forests of 

 mount Apo a peculiar species whose swollen or nodose 

 base was honeycombed and inhabited by ants, similar to the 

 bulbs of Hydnophytum , Myrmecodia and Myrmephytum species, 

 but not quite so elaborately constructed. Lecanopteru pumila 

 Blm. an epiphytic fern has also this same tuberous and in- 

 sectivorous character. This Loranthus formicarium Elm. has 

 not since been recollected. From that same region I described 

 a species whose habit was inclined to creep along limbs of 

 the host tree, here and there grafting its tissue into the tis- 

 sue of its host. In this article, Loranthus preslii Elm. is also 

 reported as a creeper or subscandent shrub. Its stem is only 

 as thick as a man's small finger, is 20 feet long and is 



1959 



