Gardening | Mistletoe has tradition, but it’s also a parasite

Mistletoe is a parasite that attaches itself to trees.

FRANK ANDERSON KRT

Mistletoe comes to the holiday season with thousands of years of tradition behind it. It appears in Norse myths. The Druids thought it was magical and brought it into pagan rituals and it was used for its medicinal attributes.

Kissing under the mistletoe, probably for reasons relating to fertility, grew out of 16th-century England.

Some forms of these traditions are still active today. Mistletoe is used around the world for medicinal purposes. We incorporate it in our holiday decorations and have fun stealing an opportunistic kiss where it hangs.

American mistletoe, Phoradendren leucarpum, with its leathery green leaves and white berries, is native throughout the Southeast, north to New York and Illinois and west to New Mexico. Others species grow in the western U.S., Europe, the tropics, Africa and Australia.

The evergreen plant grows in shrub-like balls one to three feet in diameter suspended high up on the branches of hardwood trees. It is particularly visible in December when trees have dropped their leaves. The green ball-like growth is quite pretty as it decorates seasonally barren branches.

That does not mean you necessarily want mistletoe growing in your backyard pecan or oak tree.

Mistletoe produces tiny, inconspicuous yellow flowers in fall. Plants are either male or female. Male flowers produce pollen which insects and wind transport to female flowers.

After pollination, small whitish berries develop in early to mid winter. Certain birds are fond of eating the berries, after which they excrete the sticky seeds. Some of the seeds affix to the bark on tree branches.

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Gardening | Mistletoe has tradition, but it’s also a parasite