Not Mistletoe but Virginia Creeper (Black Diamond) Traditional Cache

What, form a distance, looks like balls of Mistletoe, high up in the trees, turned out to be Virginia Creeper. I still don’t know why the V.C. balls up like that, but I have learned a lot about Mistletoe.

Don’t forget, BYOP!

Mistletoe is the common name for most obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santales. Mistletoes attach to and penetrate the branches of a tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they absorb water and nutrients from the host plant.

Also known as the European mistletoe, iscum album is a parasite found on more than 200 different trees and shrubs. The host plant supplies both water and other nutrients.

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Think mistletoe is all about holiday romance?

Think again. The festive plant -- which also goes by the name devil's fuge -- holds some sinister secrets.

1. Mistletoe is a parasite

Mistletoe is an evergreen pest that attaches itself to trees, plants and shrubs, stealing their nutrients and water. This can weaken or disfigure the host plant, and eventually even kill it.

"When you get a heavy infestation, it keeps sucking strength away from the plant," according to Rick Gibson, a plant expert at the University of Arizona. "It's almost like a cancerous type of growth.”

2. Mistletoe is really hard to get rid of

Once it infects a tree, mistletoe is difficult to remove. When its seeds sprout, they grow through the bark of trees and into their tissues, extending up and down within the branches. Even if you cut off the visible portion of the invader, new plants often grow from inside the host. The most effective way to fight it is to remove an infected branch or limb entirely.

3. Mistletoe is poisonous

Eating any part of the plant can cause drowsiness, blurred vision, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, weakness and seizures. The symptoms are caused by a poisonous ingredient called phoratoxin, which is found in all parts of the plant, including the berries, and is especially concentrated in the leaves. Eating the plant raw or drinking it in tea can cause poisoning.

4. But it also has medicinal properties

Despite its dangers, mistletoe has a history of medicinal use. The European varieties have been used for centuries in traditional medicine to treat seizures, headaches, infertility, hypertension and arthritis.

According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, mistletoe injections are available only in clinical trials in the U.S., but are available by prescription in Europe, where the plant is used as a treatment for cancer.

5. Mistletoe is also a desert plant

European mistletoe grows in temperate regions all over the world. There are also several species in America that thrive in the deserts in the Southwest, where they live on palo verde, mesquite, juniper, pine and other trees.

6. Mistletoe comes in different forms

Not all mistletoe has the festive holiday look most of us are used to. Some broadleaf mistletoes have green stems with oval-shaped leaves and small, sticky, whitish berries. Dwarf misteltoes are smaller, with scaly yellow or orange leaves. Some have no leaves at all and some look like a dense bundle of twigs stuck in the branches of another tree.

7. And goes by many different names

Mistletoe is also known as birdlime, all-heal, golden bough, drudenfuss, iscador and devil's fuge.

If you’ve ever wondered why we kiss under the mistletoe and how the plant got that strange name, well, wonder no more.

The name for mistletoe derives the fact that mistletoe tends to spring from bird droppings that have fallen on trees, with the seeds having passed through the digestive tract of the birds. Thus, the plant was given the name “misteltan” in Old English from “mistel”, meaning “dung”, and “tan”, the plural of “ta”, meaning “twig”. Hence, “mistletoe” is another way to essentially say “dung twig”.

Not only is mistletoe a dung twig, but most varieties of this plant are partial parasites, being unable to sustain themselves on their own photosynthesis, so they leach what they need from the particular tree they are growing on. Some varieties of mistletoe, such as the North America Arceuthobium pussilum, are full parasites in that they get all their resources from the tree they are growing on and have no leaves.

So where did the tradition of kissing under a parasitic poop twig come from? The mistletoe has been considered a prized plant throughout history going all the way back to the Ancient Greeks, Celts, the Babylonians, and Scandinavians. For instance, the Ancient Greeks considered the plant an aphrodisiac; believed it aided in fertility; and could be used to achieve eternal life.

According to Ancient Babylonian legend, they had the closest thing to our current tradition of kissing under the mistletoe. At that time, single women looking for a mate supposedly would stand outside of the temple of the goddess of love. Mistletoe was hung over the entrance to the temple and when a potential suitor would approach one of the ladies, they were supposed to bond with him. They did not kiss, however, as kissing wasn’t a way to show affection at that time in the Babylonian empire.

As for a more direct root of our kissing tradition, Norseman had many traditions and legends concerning the mistletoe. One tradition was that mistletoe was a plant of peace and so that when enemies met under the mistletoe they were obliged to stop fighting for at least a day. Eventually, this spawned a tradition to hang mistletoe over the doorway of one’s home for peace and good luck.

Mistletoe became associated with Christmas from this tradition of hanging mistletoe in one’s home to bring good luck and peace to those within the house. The mistletoe would be hung around the New Year and the previous year’s mistletoe would be taken down, with its powers apparently tapped. The new plant would then provide this luck throughout the year.

By the 18th century in Britain, this evolved into the kissing tradition we have today. At this time, it became popular to create a ball of mistletoe that would be hung as a Christmas decoration. If a couple was found standing under the mistletoe, they were then obliged to kiss if the mistletoe ball still had berries. For each kiss, one berry would be taken from the ball. Once all the berries were gone, all the “luck” in love and marriage was considered to be drained out of the mistletoe and it was now considered bad luck to kiss beneath it, instead of good luck as before.

As seen in the picture above, Phoradendron leucarpum's habitat extends  up the northern border of Illinois, as far west as New Mexico, and inhabits almost every state along the Eastern Coast.   This wide habitat area means that Mistletoe has been able to become adapted to climates such as the arid deserts of New Mexico to the semi-tropical wetlands of Florida.  Because this is such a widely varied habitat and climate,  selection has favored the parasitism of many different types of trees. 

Virginia Creeper and Wild Grape

Virginia Creeper and Wild Grapevines use trees and other plants to reach tall heights to compete for sunlight. The vines form thick carpets over trees, blocking light to the leaves and weighing down branches until the tree dies.

Wild vines do provide shelter and food for some animals, but the vines' destructive properties overweigh their usefulness, and they must be kept in check.

To attack the vines from the treetops by pulling them off, would also damage the underlying plants.

Instead attack the roots. Trace a vine to its root, cut it once flush with the ground and then a second time about shoulder height to make sure it can't re-root. Even trailing tendrils can take root if they touch the ground. "It's a quick rooter and it just goes,”

So that explains the cut off section of Vine trunk, that I attached the Sassafras cache to. That was more approachable than the Sassafras itself.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, "small" pill bottle, that has to be pushed hard to open and close. Please BYOP and return everything as you found it.