What type of plant is the mistletoe people refer to during the holiday season? How did it get its name?
There are over 1,000 mistletoe species. It is a parasitic plant that was hosted by the oak tree, but also seen on pear trees in Roman times. Mistletoe has a long history of ritual use, myth, legend, and folklore. The name ‘mistletoe’ comes from two Anglo-Saxon words: mistle, meaning dung, and tan meaning twig. Why “dung on a twig,” you might ask. The name comes from the way the plant is propagated by birds eating the berries, then passing the seeds through the gut, and excreting the deposits onto the branches of trees. Seeds are rubbed around by the birds’ beaks when they wipe them on the bark. The seeds then germinate from cracks in the twigs of the tree. The species of European lore and legend is Viscum album, which lives on deciduous tree species, such as apple and poplar. In North America, mistletoe more commonly refers to Phoradendron leucarpum. You can watch a clip of birds interacting with an Australian mistletoe species on the BBC’s website. We also have in the library a copy of The Private Life of Plants by David Attenborough, which describes the phenomenon.
If you want to go deeper into the lore, we also recommend checking out The Green Mantle: An Investigation into our Lost Knowledge of Plants by Michael Jordan.