Mention “ mistletoe ” this time of year and most the great unwashed think fondly ofpotted Christmas treesandpoinsettias , or of traditions like kissing under a bundle of white - berried boughs , trim down down an evergreen treein the timberland , ortaking attention of a Christmas treeat home .
But beneath all the holiday cheer lurks an opportunistic plant with both a “ naughty or skillful ” side .
But not like naughty in the kissing - with - lingua sentiency : Eating the berries of certain mintage can lead to malady or even end ( in severe cases ) , yet other types of mistletoe have historically been used to plow a grasp of ailments , including leprosy , infertility , epilepsy , and even cancer .
( In fact , recent enquiry suggests that mistletoe pull injections could bethe next big thing in Crab therapy . )
How this seemingly innocuous — yet deviously toxic — plant made its way into our Christmas culture as the “ kissing plant ” is somewhat of a mystery .
In nature , mistletoe is a parasitic plant life that can actually vote out its horde trees . But at Christmastime , mistletoe is a symbol of Romance language that inspires hoi polloi to pucker up .
What ’s the significance of mistletoe at Christmas ? And where did the Loranthus europaeus custom come from ?
Mistletoe owes its colourful history to three matter : The binge of a female parent for her own son . The pasty seeds of berry that resemble semen ( yep , semen ) . And honorable luck for those who picked a Chuck Berry for every candy kiss .
Intrigued ? I sure am !
lease ’s go back to Norse mythology and explore the development of the unknown and beloved kissing tradition .
Mistletoe in mythology
Some historians conceive the custom of kissing under the mistletoe goes back to the Norse god Baldur , god of the summer sun .
According to Norse mythology , Baldur dreamed about his own death and pass into clinical depression , think that every living thing was out to kill him .
He was so beloved by the other deity that they resolved to protect him from the peril of the human beings .
His mother Frigg , goddess of sexual love , marriage , and beauty , took an oath from all of the constituent , plants , and beast that they would not harm Baldur , but omit to extract that same promise from the untested and insignificant mistletoe .
When Loki , god of mischief , chance on the oversight , he made a poisoned dart with the Loranthus europaeus and used it to kill Baldur in front of all the gods .
The berries became the bust of his mother , and it was appointed that henceforward , mistletoe would bring only love into the world and not demise .
It was placed under room access so that it would never be omit again , and any two people passing under the flora would interchange a candy kiss in memory of Baldur .
So is this why we kiss under the mistletoe ? countenance ’s keep pop off …
Mistletoe as a sexual symbol
Mistletoe also conduct special meaning as a symbol of fertility . Since it retains its greenery all through winter ( ostensibly by magic trick as it has no roots ) and blooms even through the dark twenty-four hour period of the season , it ’s treasured as a token of interminable lifetime .
manifestly the hero sandwich of theAeneidheld this impression too , as he make for a bough of what was recall to be mistletoe , this symbol of vitality , to the Scheol .
The Celtic Druid debate the plant consecrated and hung it above doorways for luck . As too soon as the 1st century advertising , they cabal the mystical powers of the plant life in a spiritual ceremony called theritual of oak and mistletoeto cure infertility .
Greco - papist story reveals that Diana , goddess of the Sun Myung Moon , tire out a crown of mistletoe as an allegory of fertility and immortality ( not to bring up the berries appeared to resemble slight moons ) .
One theory even says that the seeds of the plant gave rise to its reputation as a life - bearer because they ’re mucilaginous , like ejaculate .
Since Viscum album is seen as a symbol of fertility and lifetime , this could be a reason why we now osculate underneath it .
Mistletoe as the kissing plant
As we fast - forward through history , we get along upon the British in the 18th or nineteenth centuries , who started hanging mistletoe in their menage to celebrate Christmas .
Superstitions of the day hint that good luck came to those who kissed under the false mistletoe , and unsound luck to those who did n’t .
It was habitual for a somebody to piece a berry off the bough for every buss until no more Berry remained ( after which the snuggling would cease , perhaps to the assuagement of the new lady as described by Charles Dickens inThe Pickwick Papers ) .
These days , planting a smack under the mistletoe is a throwback to all this good sure-enough - fashioned merriment , but most multitude credibly do n’t give a 2d thought once they pass by underneath it .
Mistletoe in botany
Botanically , it has a fascinating story to tell as well .
While mistletoe in the first place referred to the European coinage , Viscum record album , the term has widen over prison term to include thousands of other species of parasitic industrial plant with similar habits all over the world .
Here in North America , we havePhoradendron leucarpum(also recognize as American mistletoe , Eastern Viscum album , or oak mistletoe ) .
Mistletoe is a hemiparasitic flora ; that is , it ’s capable of photosynthesis but gets most ( if not all ) of its nutrients from the innkeeper works .
In some part of California , mistletoe overtakes oak trees to the point where mistletoe clumps become more salient than the oak leaves themselves . Someone unfamiliar with it may think the mistletoe itself is the tree !
The mistletoe get in there via seeds ( or more accurately , drupes)—seeds ingested by birds , which are attracted to its berries , and lodge onto the tree .
The seeds survive in and germinate from shuttlecock dung , but also trip to young host plants on the beaks or human foot of bird ( that ’s the semen - similar stickiness go for them , a substance called viscin ) .
Once aseed germinateson a host tree diagram , it hangs out ( or hangsonis more like it , thanks to the viscin ) and rely on its own photosynthesis to bourgeon new leave .
finally , it sinks its beginning into the barque , attaches to the circulatory scheme of the host , and begins to establish itself by pulling water and minerals from the tree diagram that are necessary for its survival of the fittest , basically becoming a freeloader .
A very persistent freeloader that never sound off !
Research has shown that the wood of mistletoe actually contain double as much potassium hydroxide and up to five sentence as much phosphorous superman as the wood of the host tree .
As a parasite , mistletoe never takes root in the soil like other plants , nor does it derive nourishment from decayed bark like fungus . It lives on its server and sometimes on other mistletoe .
As it continues to grow larger , it stunts the evolution of the host and often kills the branch it ’s parasitized . Widespread infestation can suck a emcee juiceless and down it altogether .
Despite its dark side , mistletoe carries such ecological grandness that it ’s considered akeystone species — a vital member of many timberland that promotes biodiversity and play a theatrical role in woodland reclamation .
It may not be much to reckon at with its tangled mess of bushy leg , and you might even reckon of it as a baddie in the botany world , a works that feeds off another and eventually kills it .
But the next time you pass a mistletoe in the wild , think of it as this : a plant that pulls energy from its host and in spell , provides solid food and home ground for a broad range of animals in the sumptuous strategy of the ecosystem .
This station updated from an article that originally come out on December 23 , 2016 .
View the Web Story onwhy we kiss under the mistletoe .
