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Before we get to the interesting stuff, a little botany lesson is appropriate. (This is a Garden Club column after all.)
Phoradendron leucarpum or American Mistletoe, is a species of mistletoe in the Viscaceae family, it’s also hemiparasitic. Simply put, it is a parasite and also capable of photosynthesis allowing it to draw energy from sunlight. Mistletoe is believed to be an Old English word and roughly translates into “dung on a twig”. Now is probably a good time to point out: All sections of the plants are potentially harmful if ingested.
This time of year, mistletoe frequently appears in our garden centers along with other traditional holiday greenery like poinsettias and holly boughs, but there’s a very good chance you’ve seen it in its natural habitat especially once the leaves fall from the trees. Around here, mistletoe usually shows up as a dark green spikey clump clinging to a branch way up in the top of a maple, poplar or oak tree.
What’s so mythical about mistletoe?
Mistletoe has appeared in many mythologies going back centuries, but let’s stick to the classics and the space we’re allotted.
Druids were believed to have used it mostly for ceremonial purposes in conjunction with the winter solstice – cutting a bow from a sacred oak tree with a golden sickle and offering it to the gods as a gift.
In Greek mythology mistletoe is associated with the character Aneas who used a bough of mistletoe to help him safely navigate the underworld to visit his father Anchises.
Norse mythology tells us that after having been used to make a deadly arrow, a spell was cast on mistletoe making it a symbol of love and empowering it only with acts of happiness and usefulness.
But our present-day mistletoe myth involving kisses most likely comes from 18th century England where it became part of the holiday merrymaking. Tradition has it that if caught beneath the mistletoe a kiss is yours to bestow.
