What is mistletoe

First Known Use of mistletoe before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above. Learn More About mistletoe. Time Traveler for mistletoe The first known use of mistletoe was before the 12th century See more words from the same century.

From the Editors at Merriam-Webster. Statistics for mistletoe Look-up Popularity. Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of mistletoe. Kids Definition of mistletoe.

Medical Definition of mistletoe. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Test your vocabulary with our question quiz! Love words? From the Cambridge English Corpus. Birds and neotropical mistletoes: effects on seedling recruitment. Vascular species were recorded over the whole site and totalled epiphytes, 21 climbers, 3 hemiepiphytes, 5 nomadic vines and 6 mistletoes.

However, this separation is achieved by other birds eating other types of mistletoe fruits. Observations were made of the way in which birds handled and processed mistletoe seeds.

The diameter of the branch where the seed was deposited was measured, and whether they were deposited onto mistletoe branches or tree branches was recorded. An example of such postconsumption manipulation of dispersers' behaviour by plants is provided by mistletoes. The quality of dispersal of mistletoe seeds in this study was greatest when the method of seed disposal by frugivorous birds was regurgitation.

That variation in host species selection by frugivorous birds had a direct effect on mistletoe dispersion was hypothesized.

Frugivorous birds play an important role in parasitic mistletoe transmission among host species. However, not all mistletoes have seeds that germinate most successfully after regurgitation. Frequency of birds' visits to host species varied depending on the tree, infested-tree, or mistletoe abundance. However, cedar waxwings could be a better dispersal agent than gray silky-flycatchers because of their gregarious behaviour and abundance during the mistletoe fruit season.

Contrasting cascades: insectivorous birds increase pine but not parasitic mistletoe growth. Tree abundance, infested-tree abundance and mistletoe abundance were different among host species. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Translations of mistletoe in Chinese Traditional. See more. When Christianity became widespread in Europe after the 3rd century AD, the religious or mystical respect for the mistletoe plant was integrated to an extent into the new religion.

In some way that is not presently understood, this may have led to the widespread custom of kissing under the mistletoe plant during the Christmas season, possibly relating to the belief in the effects on fertility and conception.

The earliest documented case of kissing under the mistletoe dates from 16th century England, a custom that was apparently very popular at that time Much less is known about early historical aspects of the dwarf mistletoes.

Because the plants of the dwarf mistletoes were small in size and not very abundant on the European continent, there is no record that ancient peoples of this region took any interest in the dwarf mistletoes.

Although there are several species of dwarf mistletoes Arceuthobium in the European, Asian, and African continents, their most extensive development occurred in Central and North America, where there are over 3 dozen species of dwarf mistletoes 7.

One of the smallest and most evolutionarily advanced species is Arceuthobium pusillum , which is found mainly in the spruce forests of eastern Canada and the eastern United States. The leafy mistletoes do not occur there because it is too cold in winter. However, even though the leafy mistletoes were not found there, Fernald 2 states that the women of the St.

John and St. Lawrence River valleys wore sprigs of dwarf mistletoe in their hair while attending dances, following the European custom of women wearing leafy mistletoe in their hair, long before this species of dwarf mistletoe was known to science. Infection of leafy mistletoe, showing dark green sinkers in the twig. Courtesy of Carolina Biological Supply Co. Most parasitic higher plants use a similar process of infection. Upon germination, a root-like structure, called a radicle, emerges from the germinated seed and grows along the branch surface by a process known as thigmotropism.

When it encounters an irregularity in the bark, the radicle will produce a swelling called a holdfast. A cementing substance may be secreted to bind the holdfast to the bark. A wedge-shaped structure, called a penetration peg, then forms to penetrate into the cortex of the host.

Once established in the host's cortex, an intimate connection forms between phloem and xylem cells of the mistletoe and the phloem and xylem cells of the host, and the mistletoe plant then absorbs nutrients and water. These connections form structures called sinkers Fig. One year or more after the mistletoe plant has infected the host, it will begin to produce the foliar parts of the plant. The mistletoe plant grows larger, producing a branched, golden-colored woody stem and yellow-green to dark green leathery leaves.

The chlorophyll of leafy mistletoes is functional and photosynthesis is sufficient to supply all of their carbon needs. In mid-autumn small, round, pearl-like berries form Fig. After they are mature, birds eat the berries and the seeds are carried away to begin new infections or the berries simply break off the plant and fall to lower branches to initiate new infections on the same tree or on understory vegetation.

Female leafy mistletoe plant, Phoradendron sp. Leafy mistletoe plants are perennial and remain alive within their respective host until the tree host, or the branch upon which it is established, dies. Since the leafy mistletoes can photosynthesize enough carbon to meet their needs, they only need to extract water, and whatever mineral nutrients the water contains, from their hosts.

Thus, while they are obligate parasites in that they can only live and reproduce on a living host, they do not necessarily cause a debilitating nutritional drain on the host. A single infection on one branch, or only a few infections on an otherwise vigorously growing tree, seems to cause no noticeable harm to the tree. Often, though, that portion of a branch beyond the point of a single infection may become stunted in growth and even die prematurely.

Multiple infections, sometimes dozens or even hundreds on a single tree, may produce a significant stress to the host tree that can either kill it outright or create stressful conditions attractive to secondary disease pests and insects that then cause premature death. Seed dissemination of the leafy mistletoes is largely passive. The leafy mistletoes have a single-seeded berry which, when mature, contains viscin, a watery-sticky substance.

Some local dissemination results when mature seeds are washed downward onto lower branches. Most distant dissemination occurs when birds feed on mistletoe berries or seeds. The seeds then either pass uninjured through the bird's digestive system or they adhere to the bird's plumage and feet and are removed during preening.

Thus, dispersal of the seeds occurs wherever the bird defecates or preens its foliage. The vsicin coating of each seed consists of numerous slender, spring-like cells that are embedded in a mucilaginous substance. Following dispersal, these viscin cells wrap around irregularities on the bark and help to glue the seed in place until it germinates and initiates a new infection. In Europe viscin was long used for the manufacture of birdlime, a sticky substance used to trap birds Infection by leafy mistletoes produces a slight, spindle-shaped swelling on the host at the infection site.

If one makes a cross section through the swelling, the mistletoe tissues mostly sinkers will be a bright yellow-green or green in color and are easily distinguished from host tissues. The dark yellow-green to green woody stems are rather coarse in appearance and with relatively smooth but somewhat wrinkled bark. The leafy mistletoes are generally not considered a serious enough threat to warrant the need for control measures.

Exceptions might include fruit orchards, intensively managed plantations, or historically valuable or visually important specimen trees. In North America, the range of leafy mistletoes does not extend north of a line drawn across the United States from approximately Oregon to New Jersey, as they are susceptible to freezing temperatures. There are about a dozen species of Phoradendron in the U. They occur mostly on hardwood tree species, but some also occur on juniper, cypress, and incense cedar.

Phoradendron flavescens attacks pecans in Florida, citrus in Texas, and walnuts and persimmons in California. Phoradendron juniperinum libocedri and P. Today, leafy mistletoes are commonly encountered on many urban and forest hardwood tree species.

In a well-documented case, the famous horticulturist, Luther Burbank, imported the common European mistletoe into California in the early s, and it has subsequently spread into the surrounding landscape on 24 species including willow, alder, poplar, elm, mountain ash, crabapple, and pear.

In its native Europe, this mistletoe also attacks apple, almond, cherry, pine, fir, and poplar in parks, orchards, forests, and plantations. Physical removal by cutting out infections of leafy mistletoes is certainly warranted in some situations. Care must be taken to remove all of the infection in the branch, as any living mistletoe tissues that remain are capable of regenerating into whole plants.

The cut branches do not have to be burned or destroyed because the mistletoe plants die quickly. Some experimentation with herbicides suggests that these might be of value in less intensively managed forest situations, but are probably not economically justified.

A quarantine of infected plant materials would not seem to be difficult, as the mistletoes require living hosts in order to survive for extended periods of time in forms other than as seeds. The eradication of mistletoes around nurseries should ensure mistletoe-free seedlings. On the other hand, during the last century growth of mistletoe was encouraged in the western United States so that the foliage could be used as a supplemental cattle feed during especially harsh winters and coincidentally to harvest and sell during the Christmas season.

In some gardens and arboreta mistletoe is propagated as a valued horticultural oddity. Today, most of the mystical aspects of the mistletoes are not celebrated. Certainly we have a more realistic understanding of their pharmaceutical and medicinal properties.