COLUMN: Did you get a kiss under a semi-parasitic plant this Christmas?

Having come through the festive time of year it seemed appropriate to look at a plant which is actually a bit scarce around here. Mistletoe is far more frequently found in the west of the UK. Possibly because of its strong association with apple orchards. In that area of the UK there are still a lot of apple trees, think Somerset cider, which elsewhere have disappeared. But despite that we still see a lot of it at this time of the year as it appears in shops.

So, what is mistletoe? Well, it is a semi-parasitic plant. It does not have roots that go into the soil like other plants. Instead it grows on the branches of trees, stealing its water and nutrients. In the UK our mistletoe can use it leaves to get energy from sunlight but around the world other species rely entirely on their hosts. The presence of mistletoe can obviously affect the host tree, often stunting its growth or in extreme cases to lose branches. For this reason it is often removed by gardeners. But out in the hedgerows and copses of the countryside it is more likely to grow undisturbed.

Mistletoe spreads by using birds to carry its seeds. The white fruits are tasty to many birds, including the mistle thrush which gets its name from liking the berries so much. If the fruits are eaten whole the seeds come out the other end. But more often while eating the fruit the seed, which has a special sticky covering, gets stuck to the bird’s beak. This annoys the bird, so it wipes the seed off on the branch of a tree, placing the seed in the right position to start growing as a new plant.

We have mistletoes as a festive decoration. It is an evergreen plant, keeping its green leaves even in the middle of winter. This and the fact it grew on other trees made it seem magical, and it became the focus for winter celebrations. These days of course we use it for kissing under. This seems to date back to at least the 1500s and possibly is much earlier. Ladies caught under the mistletoe would have to kiss the man who caught them. One part of this old practise less commonly carried out today is that with each kiss, a berry was removed from the mistletoe bunch. When all the berries were gone, no more kisses were allowed!

Dr Chris Andrews is the visitor experience manager at RSPB Frampton Marsh