The Truth About Mistletoe

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According to some accounts, the priests would embrace and kiss as part of the ceremony. Folklorists speculate that this led to the tradition of smooching under the mistletoe.

None of these beliefs settled well with the emergence of the Christian faith and the establishment of late December as a sacred holiday. Unlike holly and ivy, which were considered acceptable symbols of eternal life, mistletoe and the practices that went with it were deemed pagan. Nonetheless, the traditions, if not the superstitions, persisted. When Europeans arrived in North America they found mistletoe here, too, and today most Americans still consider the plant a harmless sign of holiday cheer and good fortune.

Mistletoe's Many Faces

The fact is, not all mistletoes in the United States are created equal, and few if any are entirely harmless. Of more than 40 species, there are two distinct types: leafy mistletoes and dwarf mistletoes. Both types are semiparasitic, relying on their host trees for water and nutrients, but also manufacturing their own food through photosynthesis.

The leafy mistletoes are the ones we hang in our homes. By far the most common is American mistletoe, which has slightly larger leaves and smaller berries than its European counterpart, and grows in globe-shaped clusters among the branches of deciduous trees.

Dwarf mistletoes have no leaves at all, just bud scales — the plants look like drab twigs. Most dwarf mistletoes grow on conifers in the western United States.

The ancients believed that the plant was delivered from beings above. They were right, at least in the case of leafy mistletoe: The "beings" are birds that eat the berries and then deposit the sticky seeds on branches by way of their drop pings. As each seed germinates, its embryonic root creeps along the branch until it meets a bud or leaf base, then flattens and attaches to the wood, forming a disc called a holdfast. The rootlet then drills into the branch and spreads its developing roots under the bark and into the living tissue.

Dwarf mistletoe plants develop much the same way, but their microscopic seeds aren't spread by birds — they're shot from the mature berries like missiles. The seeds don't travel far, so the plant doesn't spread quickly to other trees. But each infested tree is subjected to a persistent rain of seeds. And to make matters worse, the parasite's lack of leaves means that it steals nearly all its nutrients, as well as moisture, from the host tree.

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