Every year, the Nuytsia floribunda, or 'Aussie Christmas tree' as it is commonly known, bursts into bright orange life each December.

This unique, giant mistletoe can only be found in the south-west corner of Western Australia and is the world's tallest parasitic tree.

"Its ancestry goes back 40 million years and it has a lot of remarkable attributes, for example most plants have one or two seedling leaves, this tree has four or five.

"No other tree in the world does that."

The parasitic nature of the WA Christmas tree is another fascinating attribute — the species forms rings around the roots of plants and cuts through just enough to access the fluids from them.

"It's also pretty non-selective in terms of what it parasitises, to the point where on many occasions in the southern suburbs of Perth, people were losing their underground telephone lines.

"They complained and it was discovered that Nuytsia floribunda was wrapping around the telephone lines and cutting in, thinking they were roots."

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