Daily Talk Forum

I am a parasitic plant which often grows in trees. I can eventually prove fatal, though I usually cause growth reduction. Most of my type are spread by birds which eat my berries which are then excreted in their droppings.

A broad array of animals depend on me for food, consuming the leaves and young shoots as well as transferring pollen between plants and dispersing the sticky fruits.

In some countries I am used for my herbal qualities.

Guess what I am and win $5.

mistletoe?

i think you might be right with that you know.

Well done, evilstartswith4. The correct answer is the Mistletoe.


"Mistletoe" refers to any of more than 200 species of semi-parasitic shrubs found worldwide. Mistletoe lives throughout the southern United States, from the Atlantic Coast to California, and on every continent except Antarctica.

Having true parasitic properties, mistletoe is devoid of roots. Instead, the dark green shrub has extensions called holdfasts that grip the host tree, from which the root-like anchors suck water and nutrients. Thus, mistletoe is only found on living trees, which are essential to the mistletoe's survival. In contrast, Spanish moss uses trees dead or alive, but only for support, extracting water and nutrients from the atmosphere.

In the South, tiny yellow flowers bloom on the evergreen mistletoe from fall into winter. The familiar white berries begin to form soon after pollination and resemble little packets of glue around tiny indigestible seeds. A mistletoe plant can be either male or female, and, like a holly tree, only the female plant has berries. Although eating mistletoe berries may potentially be lethal for humans, birds seem to be immune to any toxicity.

The immunity of birds to mistletoe's poisonous qualities is essential to the welfare of the plant. The dispersal and propagation of mistletoe is largely dependent on birds that eat the berries but do not digest the seeds. Ecological studies suggest that seeds are most likely to survive and grow if a bird deposits them on the same species of tree on which the parent plant lived. A spring migration flock of cedar waxwings can result in newly developing mistletoe plants being far away from where the seeds were eaten.

Mistletoe thrives in bright sunlight in the uppermost branches of big oaks and is absent from pines and evergreen hardwoods such as magnolias with needles and leaves that hamper direct sunlight.

A parasitic life style is unusual among flowering plants, but many aspects of mistletoe biology are well understood. Although the effort to obtain water and minerals, or even space itself, is intense and highly competitive among most plants, mistletoe does not encounter such problems. Tree limbs, a ready source of water and minerals for this unusual little plant, are available throughout the South, and its absence from the uppermost branches of a tall oak is probably because no bird has dropped a seed there.

Mistletoe has been singled out over the ages as possessing unique qualities, perhaps, in part, because of its many unusual ecological properties. According to Scandinavian legend, mistletoe was the only organism in the world from which Odin's son Baldur was not protected, and a mistletoe dart was the cause of his death. Mistletoe is also associated with the Druids, the mysterious, oak-worshiping sect that inhabited the British Isles centuries ago. The Druids considered mistletoe a plant of honor and power. According to legend, when the parasitic plant was found growing in an oak tree, the Druids performed strange sacrificial ceremonies at the tree on the sixth day after a full moon. The Druids reportedly used a golden sickle when harvesting mistletoe from a sacred oak.

The use of mistletoe as a romantic lure stems from England at least as early as the 1500s. In 1520, William Irving wrote that a young man should pluck a berry each time he kisses a young girl beneath the mistletoe. A version of the tradition persists today in secular Christmas decorations. However, although the berries appear just in time for Christmas, mistletoe is not used in churches. One possible reason for not including mistletoe in today's religious decorations is its association with the Druids.

Mistletoe serves as an example of how an organism can receive attention because of its extraordinary ecology. To be sure, the influence of such a lowly and inconspicuous plant on human actions is impressive