New Zealand is offering an intriguing Christmas novelty - exploding mistletoe.
The newly discovered mistletoe has long, thin flower buds that explode when twisted by honeyeater birds eager to get at their pollen.Jenny Ladley and Dave Kelly of the University of Canterbury, writing in Nature magazine, said this was the first recorded case of explosive mistletoe in the Australia area.
The mistletoe offered the honeyeaters perfect forage that the scientists described as "tamper-proof, twist-top fast food for birds."