Mistletoe Vine with Red Berries
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
by Dennis Sons
tn nursery
Mistletoe is a plant which does not make all of its own food, but instead sponges off other plants. Mistletoe got its name in the second century, from the Anglo-Saxons. "Mistel" is the word for "dung," and "tan" is the word for "twig" -- misteltan is the Old English version of mistletoe, and this name tells us that mistletoe is named after bird droppings on a branch. One of the beliefs in the early centuries was that mistletoe grew from birds. People used to believe that, rather than just passing through birds in the form of seeds, the mistletoe plant was a result of birds landing in the branches of trees.
Mistletoe species grow on a wide range of host trees , and commonly reduce their growth but can kill them with heavy infestation. Viacom album can parasitize more than 200 tree and shrub species. Almost all mistletoes are hemi-parasites , bearing evergreen leaves that do some photosynthesis , and using the host mainly for water and mineral nutrients. However, the mistletoe first sprouts from bird feces on the trunk of the tree and indeed in its early stages of life take it nutrients from this source. An exception is the leafless quintal, Tristerix aphyllus , which lives deep inside the sugar-transporting tissue of a spiny cactus, appearing only to show its tubular red flowers. The genus Arceuthobium (dwarf mistletoe; Santalaceae) has reduced photosynthesis; as an adult, it manufactures only a small proportion of the sugars it needs from its own photosythesis but as a seedling it actively photosynthesizes until a connection to the host is established.
Most mistletoe seeds are spread by birds, such as the Mistle Thrush in Europe, the Phainopepla in southwestern North America, and Dicaeum of Asia and Australia. However, distinguishing between this species and ones of other ecological biomes is not difficult. They derive sustenance and agility through eating the fruits and nuts ( drupes ). The seeds are excreted in their droppings and stick to twigs, or more commonly the bird grips the fruit in its bill, squeezes the sticky coated seed out to the side, and then wipes its bill clean on a suitable branch. The seeds are coated with a sticky material called viscin (containing both cellulosic strands and mucopolysaccharides ), which hardens and attaches the seed firmly to its future host.
Now you can grow your own mistletoe and say good-bye to purchasing it at the holidays. You can purchase your mistletoe at www.tnnursery.net at a great low price. You get a high quality plant that will ensure you many wonderful and festive years to come.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Mistletoe was so revered by these ancient Druids that it was never allowed to touch the floor; it had to be hung from eves and from ceilings.In their pagan rites, revered most valued mistletoe was used as an aphrodesiac, a sexual stimulant, and under its horny influence hundreds of young Druid women and young Druid men would go into the fields('children of the corn') to lasciviously and licentiously copulate in public in great numbers, to excite and thus encourage the 'Gods' to do likewise, a type of Godly pornography .These Druids believed that the rains which enriched the fields at this holiday time, which fell from the sky, were the 'seeds of the Gods', or God's sperm, which fell down to earth from Godly sexual unions and were essential in order to stimulate agricultural growth.Today,Christians who still hang mistletoe are displaying the vestigial remnants of this shameless sexual rite of the Druids, as on Christmas, one can kiss anyone who stands under this herb, without owning guilt or shame.
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