Magical powers of mistletoe stir the holiday spirit

Kissing under the mistletoe is a long-standing Christmas season tradition, one that was nurtured by American author Washington Irving (1783-1859). In his 1820 essay, “Christmas Eve,” Irving wrote:

“The mistletoe is still hung up in farmhouses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases.”

 

Don’t run out of magic berries. The solution is to get a mess of tangled mistletoe branches that are shaped like rounded “baskets” and found in trees. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) says a mistletoe basket can reach 5-feet wide and weigh 50 pounds. Large baskets are known as “witches’ brooms.”

 

Female mistletoe sprigs sprout the pearly white berries. Male plants are berryless, according to Roger Di Silvestro of Burke, Va., a contributor to the NWF. The berries are toxic to humans, but birds and animals find them quite tasty. 

Di Silvestro said: “A variety of birds nest directly in witches’ brooms, including house wrens, chickadees, mourning doves, pygmy nuthatches, spotted owls and Cooper’s hawks. Several tree squirrel species also make their home in witches’ brooms.” 

Passing through birds’ digestive tracts, mistletoe seeds are kind of sticky and latch onto tree branches. “Mistletoe is hemiparasitic plant,” noted historian Bill Petro of Colorado Springs, Colo. “It sends its roots into the tree’s bark and derives its nutrients from the tree itself, though mistletoe also engages in photosynthesis.” 

The English village of Tenbury Wells is the “world mistletoe capital,” reported Bethan Bell of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The town sits alongside the River Teme where the counties of Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire meet in England’s West Midlands region.

 

Here are the king and queen of the Tenbury Wells Mistletoe Festival.

Queen Victoria, who visited the area at the end of the 19th century, referred to Tenbury as “my little town in the orchard.” 

Nick Champion, 63, has served as Tenbury’s mistletoe and holly auctioneer since 1977. One of the apple growers who harvests mistletoe from his trees and sells it at Champion’s auctions is Michael Lewis. 

“Mistletoe brings a bit of brightness into people’s lives, and it’s part of Christmas, just like mince pies,” Lewis told Bell.