Gardening column: Mistletoe history and lore | Columnists | postandcourier.com – Charleston Post Courier
Mistletoe has a long and varied history, depending on what century you want to investigate. There are references to European and Greek folklore, protection against poisons and witches, healing powers for epilepsy and ulcers and magical properties that foretell bad omens. If you’re a “Harry Potter” fan, then you know mistletoe is also infested with nargles.
If you look for an explanation in mythology, you’ll find that the Norse goddess Frigga was overprotective of her son, Baldur, and made all things promise not to harm him. However, she forgot about mistletoe. Loki, the trickster, mortally wounded Baldur with a dart made from mistletoe.
But Frigga saved her son with her tears. Her tears became the white berries of mistletoe. She declared mistletoe a symbol of peace and love, and those who passed beneath it during Christmas office parties had to kiss.
Mistletoe was also thought to represent life and fertility because the plant sprung from piles of bird droppings. Birds eat the seeds and spread them in their feces. The seeds germinate on the branch of a host tree. “Mistel” refers to “dung” and “tan” means “twig.” The translation: dung-on-a-stick.
This reference to fertility was used in Greek marriage ceremonies to wish the lucky couple, well, fertility. Eventually, it was used as trimming during the holiday season, and anyone who kissed underneath the mistletoe could expect lasting romance. In Scandinavian folklore, young men had to pluck a berry from the mistletoe with each kiss from a young woman until it was bare.
If you are in need of a sprig of mistletoe’s kissing power, look no further than the Lowcountry. It can typically be found in the upper branches of a variety of trees, such as honeylocust, pecan and certain oaks. Occasionally, it will grow within reach of pole pruners. You’ll likely have to climb the tree in order to clip it. When growing on flimsy branches too weak to support a ladder, folks have been known to shoot it out of the tree with a shotgun.
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Mistletoe is a parasitic plant. Technically, it’s a hemi-parasite that only gets water and nutrients from its host. It “roots” into a host branch with structures called a haustorium. However, since it is photosynthetic, it produces its own food.
It’s easy to spot this time of year when trees shed their leaves. An infested tree will reveal green, shrubby growth near the top of the canopy. While seeds are commonly spread …….