What's in this issue? What's that seasonal plant found over our doorways! Did you know it can be found growing here in New Jersey?
Mistletoe is Good for More Than Just Kissing
By Suzanne McCarthy
The next time you kiss under the mistletoe, consider this: mistletoe also provides essential food, cover, and nesting sites for an amazing number of birds, butterflies, and mammals. The common name “mistletoe” is derived from early observations that mistletoe would often appear in places where birds had left their droppings. "Mistel" is the Anglo-Saxon word for "dung", and "tan" is the word for "twig". Thus, mistletoe means "dung-on-a-twig".
Even though bird droppings do not really generate mistletoe plants, birds are an important part of mistletoe life. Birds find mistletoe a great place for nesting, and many birds eat mistletoe berries, including grouse, mourning doves, bluebirds, evening grosbeaks, robins and pigeons, according to the United State Geological Survey.
Mistletoe is a partially parasitic plant, or “hemi-parasite.” It photosynthesizes its own food but depends on a host plant, usually a tree, for its water and minerals. Once on a host tree, the mistletoe sends out roots that penetrate the tree and eventually starts pirating some of the host tree’s nutrients and minerals. Oaks are particularly favored but in South Jersey, black gum trees are frequently where you can spot mistletoe. Eventually, mistletoes grow into thick masses of branching, misshapen stems, giving rise to a popular name of witches’ brooms, or the apt Navajo name of “basket on high."
Two growth forms of mistletoes are native to the United States. There is the white-berried, leafy American mistletoe (Phoradendron serotinum) – the one commonly associated with our kissing customs, which is found from New Jersey to Florida and west through Texas. Central Jersey is the northern limit for growth of the American mistletoe, which is more readily available in warmer climates along the East Coast and in the South. The other form is the mostly leafless dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium) which exists as 5 species and is much smaller than the “kissing” American mistletoe. It is found from central Canada and southeastern Alaska to Honduras and Hispaniola, but most species are found in the western United States and Mexico on evergreen trees. There are 1,300 species of mistletoe worldwide. Globally, more than 20 mistletoe species are endangered.
Mistletoe is toxic to people, but the berries and leaves of mistletoe provide high-protein fodder for many mammals, especially in autumn and winter when other foods are scarce. This includes squirrels, chipmunks, and even porcupines, some of which are extremely fond of the plant.
Three kinds of butterflies in the United States are entirely dependent on mistletoes
for their survival: the Great Purple Hairstreak, the Thicket Hairstreak, and the Johnson’s Hairstreak. The Great Purple Hairstreak is the only butterfly in the United States that feeds on American mistletoe, the Christmas mistletoe. This beautiful butterfly lays its eggs on the mistletoe, where the resulting caterpillars thrive on a mistletoe diet. The caterpillars of the other two butterflies feed on dwarf mistletoes. The adults of all three species drink nectar from the mistletoe flowers.
Not everyone likes mistletoe. Many commercial foresters consider the dwarf mistletoe as a disease that reduces the growth rates of commercially important conifer species, such as the ponderosa pine. Ecologists, though, point out that mistletoes are not a disease; instead, they are a native group of plants that have been around for thousands, or even millions, of years. A parasite's function is to not kill its host. However, some parasites can have detrimental effects, and in high densities mistletoe can affect growth rates of their host trees.
Mistletoe is hard to harvest. It grows at a height of 50 to 60 feet and, interestingly, the easiest way to collect it is to shoot it down with a shotgun, hitting the branch on which it grows so it will fall to the ground. That tradition continues to this day, although it is increasingly rare. Mistletoe is categorized as endangered and is protected by state law. It is illegal to remove from wildlife management areas, but on private property, you can do what you want with your mistletoe, just as you can cut down a tree. The sprigs on store shelves today are mainly imported or synthetic.
Mistletoe’s unusual origins have created an aura of divinity around it. There are records of religious and medicinal usage dating back to prehistoric societies, including veneration by the Druids. Mistletoes make berries in winter. They thus provide food for birds when most other Great Purple Hairstreak butterfly plants don’t. The winter fruits were, perhaps, part of why the druids thought the plant had magical powers. And presumably, those berries explain why mistletoe became a traditional decoration at this time of year, and how it came to be used in a kissing ritual. The Christmas connection is rooted in the idea of life blooming even in the harshness of winter.
Sources:
Colorado State Forest Service. “Dwarf Mistletoe: Parasitic Plants.” https://csfs.colostate.edu/forest-management/common-forest-insects-diseases/dwarf-mistletoe/
Judson, Olivia. “The Hemiparasite Season.” New York Times., Dec. 23, 2014.
Pfeiffer, Bryan. “Kiss This: A higher Calling for Mistle.” December 25, 2014.
Rose, Lisa. “Hunting for Mistletoe in New Jersey” Dec. 23, 2010. Lisa Rose | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com.
US Geological Service article on American mistletoe, December 7, 2015:
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