Mistletoe Has 1,000 Kissing Cousins and Really Does Grow on Trees
John Peslak of Abilene, Tex., tells why he believes there’s more to mistletoe than meets the eye--or the lips:
Mistletoe. My first memory of it is probably similar to yours. Yes, it involves kissing. I was a boy, and my dad was kissed at a neighbor’s Christmas party. I was surprised, but my mom chuckled and explained that dad was standing under a mistletoe sprig. I learned there was more to Christmas tradition than Santa Claus!
After becoming a teacher in Texas, I learned there is much more to learn about mistletoe.
Worldwide, there are more than a thousand species of mistletoe, and most are found in the tropics. All mistletoe are parasites, taking water and minerals from a host plant, usually a tree. Biologists believe mistletoe evolved in areas where water was scarce or the soil lacked minerals.
Many mistletoe are quite different from those used for decorations here in the United States. In the Holy Land, mistletoe growing on acacia trees has such brilliant red flowers that the tree seems aflame. Some people have thought this was Moses’ burning bush. Australia has a mistletoe that is treelike and can grow to 35 feet. It blooms around the holidays and is Australia’s Christmas mistletoe.
My favorite is the juniper mistletoe. It grows on juniper and cypress trees from northern Mexico into Texas’ trans-Pecos region and on to Oregon. I like it because it’s beautiful. It has pendulous, leafless clumps and many thin branches that remind me of something from a coral reef.
American mistletoe, also called Christmas mistletoe, grows on trees such as oaks, elms, maples, cottonwoods and mesquites from central New Jersey south to the Gulf Coast, west to New Mexico and into California. Their broad-leafed branches form spherical clumps. One of the largest reported was the size of a cow and weighed 50 pounds. Most of the clumps I have seen were the size of beach balls.
Because mistletoe grows on trees, during the 17th and 18th centuries it was thought to grow from within the tree. Even today, some folks think it is a fungus. It isn’t; it’s just a lovely plant.
In the fall, mistletoe produces spikes of berries. Within each berry is a seed coated with a sticky substance. The berries of American mistletoe are eaten by songbirds such as bluebirds and mockingbirds. Some of the seeds stick to the birds’ bills, but birds are tidy eaters--they wipe the seed off on a nearby branch where it can sprout. Seeds are also deposited in bird droppings.
For 5,000 years, mistletoe was revered around the world for having special, even magical, powers. Why? Probably because in winter, when other plants looked dead, the mistletoe, above the ground between heaven and earth, was green and bearing fruit.
Among the wonders attributed to mistletoe were the abilities to find buried treasure, keep witches away and prevent trolls from souring milk.
All that and kissing, too!
