POISIONOUS! It was the most sacred tree of the Druids, and it ruled Winter Solstice.

American plants closely resembling Old World mistletoe

Old World parasitic shrub having branching greenish stems with leathery leaves and waxy white glutinous berries; the traditional mistletoe of Christmas

shrub of central and southeastern Europe; partially parasitic on beeches, chestnuts and oaks

Kiss me, Affection, To Surmount Difficulties, Sacred Plant of India

pirita The mistletoe is another colourful New Zealand plant that also provides great food for tui and other birds and insects. The birds drink nectar from flowers and eat their fruits. In fact, a mistletoe flower cannot open without help from an animal partner. This video (500Kb .mov QuickTime movie) shows a tui opening a mistletoe flower. The flowers begin as sealed buds that can only be opened when a bird twists the top and the petals spring open. Without birds like tui, the mistletoe flowers would never be pollinated and so no new mistletoe seeds would ever be made. What do you think would happen if no new mistletoe seeds were made

A parasitic higher plant that has leafy and dwarf forms.

A semiparasitic plant that grows on some types of trees. Mistletoe extracts are being studied as treatments for cancer.

In the North Country, the Eastern Dwarf Mistletoe ( Arceuthobium pusillum), a flowering parasite of Black Spruce ( Picea mariana). Not to be confused with that of the Druids and later holiday tradition.

Mistletoe is a plant parasitic on the branches of a tree or shrub. All mistletoes are parasitic plants in the order Santalales. This mistletoe habit has evolved independently five times: 1) Misodendraceae, 2) Loranthaceae, 3) Santalaceae (formerly considered the separate family Eremolepidaceae), and Santalaceae ( formerly treated as the separate family Viscaceae).