Underneath The Mistletoe

Druids worshipped it for more than kissing at Christmas, as Pip Webster explains.

Sitting under the mistletoe… Some one came, and kissed me there, wrote Walter de la Mare. According to the Anglo Saxons, kissing under the mistletoe was connected to the legend of Freya, goddess of love, beauty and fertility. By the eighteenth century mistletoe had been incorporated into Christmas celebrations, but was excluded from church decorations because of its pagan and magical associations. It was thought to be a symbol of eternal life, staying green and living in winter when the tree supporting it appeared to be dead. Some think its name derives from ‘mistl’ (different) and ‘tan’ (twig).

Viscum album is the only British representative of the Loranthaceae, most of whose members live bizarre existences in the tops of tropical rain forests. Mistletoe is an evergreen partial parasite found growing on a variety of deciduous trees. It is able to photo synthesise its own sugars, but puts out tentacles that penetrate the host tree’s bark and grow into the tissues to extract water and minerals.