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Viscum album
'Kissing Mistletoe' Common Names: Misletoe |
| Description: | |
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Mistletoe is an evergreen parasitic plant that grows on the branches of certain deciduous trees, forming pendent bushes, 50-150 cm in diameter, the leaves thick and leathery, oval to round, 2.5-5 cm long. The small, spring flowers leave behind yellowish-white, sticky, autumn berries, smooth and semitransparent, that remain throughout the winter. Mistletoe is a plant with centuries of superstition and belief attached to it. There are many stories about its supposed magical properties and the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe has persisted for many years. The Victorians, in particular, had an ambivalent attitude towards it, unhappy with the plant’s pagan links but celebrating the romantic legends associated with mistletoe. The 19th century poem ‘The Mistletoe Bough’ by Thomas Haynes Bayley tells the story of a bride on her wedding day who playfully hides from her betrothed. As the wedding guests search for her without success, the groom becomes evermore frantic, but no trace of her can be found. Centuries later, an old chest is found in the attic of the house and inside lies a skeleton in a wedding dress. Mistletoe is a parasite and relies on a host tree to provide it with a growing platform and nutrients. The leaves are evergreen and elliptical in shape, the widest part being at the end of the leaf. They are borne on repeatedly forked branches in the apex of which, in November, a sticky white berry is produced. The appearance of green mistletoe in a lifeless winter tree is, no doubt, one reason why the plant acquired a mystical significance. Mistletoe is described as dioecious, meaning it has separate male and female plants. The males flower between February and April, producing small tight clusters of blooms barely seen in the fork between two branching stems carrying four tiny petals. Females produce the familiar white berries in November and December. The berries are popular with certain birds, particularly the mistle thrush. The bird, having digested the soft flesh of the berry, voids the still-sticky seed. If this lands on a suitable branch, it may germinate and with its shoot ‘plug itself in’ to the host tree’s soft bark and begin tapping its liquid food supply. Although relying on trees for support and nourishment, mistletoes do have green leaves containing chlorophyll , and can manufacture food for themselves using the process of photosynthesis . There are well over a thousand species of mistletoe worldwide, and one of them provides a clue as to how the family became parasitic. In Western Australia there lives a variety of mistletoe known locally as the Christmas tree because it flowers in December. It looks like an ordinary free-standing tree, but underground, its roots reach out and tap the roots of every other nearby plant, from grasses to other trees. |
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| Problems: | |
| Mistletoe’s white berries are potentially toxic and should be avoided. |
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