Story behind the art of Prerna Gupta

Curious Allies: Mutualism in Fungi, Parasites, and Carnivores

The Fifth New York Botanical Garden Triennial

Indian Mistletoe

Dendrophthoe falcata

About two years ago, while out for a stroll near my home in Kanpur, India, I noticed delicate orange flowers on the ground. Looking up, I saw a cascading plant growing high up on a mango tree with bright, flame-colored tubular flowers in bunches.

I had never noticed this plant before, but now it seemed to be everywhere, growing on almost every mango, neem and mulberry tree around me. I went online and a reverse image search (plus further reading) led me to identify this plant as Dendrophthoe falcata or the Indian mistletoe, the most common mistletoe species found in India.

D. falcata blooms in the winter, and that first year, I drew many sketches. Winter passed, and while I knew I wanted to illustrate this plant as a finished artwork, I needed more time and more information. So, I waited for the next flowering season.

D. falcata is a stem hemiparasite which is a type of parasitic plant that relies on its host for water and nutrients but at the same time, is also capable of photosynthesis. Hemiparasites are further divided into categories – root hemiparasites which attach to the root of the host and stem hemiparasites which attach to the host’s trunk. On the other hand, holoparasitic plants rely entirely on their host for nutrition.

For a farmer, D. falcata is a pest - it robs its host trees of nutrition resulting in low yield of fruits and overall poor growth. But for birds, it provides nectar and food, and for many butterflies, it functions as the host plant for their larvae. One’s trash is another’s treasure.

With the arrival of the next season, I got the chance to complete my notes and sketches and I finally had all the information I needed to begin work. Illustrating this plant presented a unique challenge - I work mostly with colored pencils and the flowers of this plant are rather small. Would I be able to depict all the tiny details with colored pencils? Should I draw the flowers magnified and accompany it with a scale? Would mixed media be better for detailed work?

I finally decided on illustrating the plant life-size and taking the challenge of using colored pencils for details head-on. It was frustratingly slow work since I had to sharpen the pencil to a fine point repeatedly. It took me several months to finish the job, but in the end, I am happy with the choices I made.

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