<< Back 12/25/02 The Naturalist's Corner By Don Hendershot While many a teenage boy and, no doubt a few adolescent office workers, will be angling to catch that certain someone under the mistletoe this holiday season and steal a kiss, most probably have no idea about the origin of this ritual. Mistletoe, like many of our Christmas traditions, predates Christianity by thousands of years. A wonderful Norse legend explains the genesis of this ritual. Balder, the Norse god of the summer sun, dreamed of his death. This dream deeply alarmed his mother, Frigga, goddess of love. She feared if her son were to die, all life on earth would end. Frigga went to all the elements and all the plants and animals of the earth soliciting vows that they would not harm Balder. While all Frigga visited gave their solemn oath, she had inadvertently overlooked one plant. Mistletoe does not sink its roots into the earth. This parasitic shrub attaches to tree limbs. Loki, god of evil and Balder’s enemy, knew of this omission. He sought out the mistletoe and made an arrow point from it, which he gave to Hoder, the blind god of winter. Hoder loosed the arrow from his bow, striking and killing Balder. The sky grew dim and all the earth and heavens mourned for the sun god. The elements tried, in vain, for three days to bring Balder back to life and failed. But the love of his mother succeeded. The tears Frigga wept during those three days turned into the pale white berries of the mistletoe and she was so overjoyed that she kissed everyone who passed beneath the tree where the mistletoe was growing. Frigga decreed that no harm should befall anyone who stood under the mistletoe; instead all should receive a kiss, the token of love. There are many other legends regarding mistletoe. In other parts of Scandinavia, it was considered a plant of peace and enemies who found themselves under it could declare a truce. In the Middle Ages, mistletoe was hung from ceilings and doorways to ward off evil spirits. In early England, mistletoe was fed to the first cow that calved in the new year to insure fertility and good luck for the entire herd. Pretty lofty accolades for a small parasitic plant, but one must think of the context. We’re talking about the winter solstice in Scandinavia. A cold, dark season bereft of the green of summer. Mistletoe and other evergreens were greatly revered for their promise of the return of warmth and light and life. Mistletoe is also highly regarded as a medicinal plant. It has been used for as long as humans have turned to botanicals. It has a reputation as a general health tonic, a tranquilizer for nervous ailments and an arthritic pain reliever. New and Old World adherents have used the plant for the treatment of epilepsy and palsy. Many today believe mistletoe has cancer-fighting properties. There are more than 1,000 species of mistletoe worldwide. Botanists today generally recognize three families of mistletoe: Loranthaceae, Viscaceae and Eremolepidaceae. Traditional taxonomy placed all mistletoe in the family Loranthaceae, but most contemporary botanists place the most familiar species of mistletoe, the genera Phoradendron and Arceuthobium from North America and Viscum, the mistletoe of Druid and Norse lore, in the family Viscaceae. Mistletoe is a hemiparasite. That means that while it attaches to tree limbs and receives sustenance from the host plant, it is also capable of photosynthesis. The common Christmas mistletoe of the U.S. is Phoradendron leucarpum. The genus name is from the Greek phor, which means thief and dendron or tree and refers to the plant’s parasitic habit of stealing nutrition from the host tree. The common name is also descriptive. Mistletoe is a derivative of mistletan. Mistle is the Anglo-Saxon word for dung and tan means twig. So you have “dung-on-a-twig”, which actually correlates to an adept power of observation. Birds are crazy about mistletoe berries. There is even a Mistle thrush in Europe. The birds eat the berries, bird droppings full of seeds fall on the branches and viola! new mistletoe. The Cherokee who have used mistletoe forever to treat epilepsy and uterine bleeding call the plant uda li (oo-tah-lee), which means “it is married” and refers to its attachment to its host tree. The Cherokee, like the Druids, thought that mistletoe which grew on oaks was especially powerful. So when you maneuver your sweetie under the dung-on-a-twig this holiday season, take a moment to think about the rich history of this noble parasite. (Don Hendershot can be reached at don@smokymountainnews.com)