40 Fun Facts About Mistletoe

In the old mistletoe kissing custom, what was plucked from the sprig after each kiss?

A berry was plucked for every kiss, and once the sprig was bare the kissing had to stop.

Which US state adopted mistletoe as its floral emblem in 1893, years before it joined the Union?

Oklahoma Territory chose mistletoe 14 years before statehood. It stood in as the state flower until the Oklahoma Rose was designated in 2004.

The tree-sized mistletoe Nuytsia floribunda puts out orange Christmas blooms in which country?

Australia is home to this giant, which taps the roots of neighbouring plants instead of perching on a branch. Its root attachments have even been found clamped onto buried cables.

The ending of the word mistletoe comes from the Old English tan, which meant what?

Twig is the meaning of tan, so the name is just 'mistle twig'. Mistle was the plant's older name, and the ending may have drifted to 'toe' once tan fell out of use as a word.

Which priests of ancient Gaul climbed a sacred tree to cut down mistletoe for a healing elixir?

Druids held nothing more sacred than mistletoe, in the words of the one Roman writer who described the rite. A drink made from it was meant to make barren animals fertile.

In Norse myth, which beloved god was killed by mistletoe, the only thing never sworn to spare him?

Baldr seemed invulnerable, so the gods made a game of hurling things at him. His blind brother, handed the mistletoe by a schemer, threw the one shot that killed.

Dwarf mistletoes of North American pine forests spread their seeds mainly by what unusual means?

An explosion of built-up water pressure bursts each ripe fruit, firing its single sticky seed at nearly 50 miles per hour.

Which Canadian singer released the single Mistletoe in 2011 ahead of a first Christmas album?

Justin Bieber led with Mistletoe, and its parent album became the first Christmas album by a male artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200.

What colour is the waxy fruit of European mistletoe, the kind traditionally hung at Christmas?

White fruit gives European mistletoe the 'album' in its scientific name. A cousin found in Spain and Morocco fruits red instead.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, who gives Harry a first kiss under the mistletoe?

Cho Chang was still grieving for Cedric Diggory, who had died the previous year, which made Harry's first-ever kiss more awkward than romantic.

The ancient Gauls prized mistletoe most when it grew on which sturdy tree, a rare host for it?

Oak rarely carries European mistletoe, which is far more often found on poplar and lime. Finding it there was unusual enough to call for a ceremony.

A Roman account says a robed priest of Gaul cut mistletoe from the tree using what golden tool?

A sickle of gold did the cutting while the mistletoe was caught in a cloak held below. The scene lives on in the bearded potion brewer of the Asterix comics.

Which Norse figure made a weapon from mistletoe after learning the plant had sworn no oath?

Loki, disguised as a woman, coaxed out the one gap in the oaths, then armed a blind god with the mistletoe and tricked him into the fatal shot.

Frank Sinatra co-wrote a 1957 Christmas song named after mistletoe and which other plant?

Holly completes the title of Mistletoe and Holly, which Sinatra wrote with two associates for the album A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra.

In Europe, mistletoe extracts such as Iscador are widely prescribed to patients with which disease?

Cancer patients in Europe are often given mistletoe injections, an idea that began with the philosopher Rudolf Steiner, though studies have found little evidence that they help.

Which family group covered I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, the mistletoe kiss song, in 1970?

The Jackson 5 version became a Christmas radio staple; the original was a 1952 chart-topper for 13-year-old Jimmy Boyd.

Which British singer topped the UK chart at Christmas 1988 with Mistletoe and Wine?

Cliff Richard took Mistletoe and Wine from a stage musical based on The Little Match Girl, and it became the UK's best-selling single of 1988.

In English orchards, European mistletoe is commonly found growing on which fruit tree?

Apple, lime and poplar are its favourite hosts, and in England it is most plentiful in the south and the West Midlands.

The European songbird named for its love of mistletoe fruit belongs to which bird family?

Thrush is the family of the mistle thrush, which guards a mistletoe clump all winter and chases off rivals. Its droppings then plant the sticky seeds on new branches.

The dense, tangled clumps that mistletoe forms in a treetop go by what spooky popular name?

Witches' brooms made by dwarf mistletoes are so dense that northern spotted owls and marbled murrelets roost and nest inside them.

A toxin in European mistletoe attacks cells in the same way as which notorious poison?

Ricin, the castor-bean poison, and the mistletoe toxin both shut down a cell's protein-making machinery, though the mistletoe toxin gets in by a different route and can kill cells that resist ricin.

Botanists place mistletoes in the same plant order as which fragrant tropical timber tree?

Sandalwood gives the order Santalales its name. Many of its members share one habit: tapping the stems or roots of other plants for water and minerals.

In the legend of the Mistletoe Bough, a bride playing hide-and-seek dies trapped inside what?

A chest in the attic became her tomb, and her skeleton was found in it decades later, still in the wedding dress. Several English mansions claim the tale as their own.

In the Harry Potter books, Luna Lovegood warns that mistletoe is infested with which creatures?

Nargles are never explained in the books, and even characters raised around magic are baffled when Luna brings them up.

Mistletoe left hanging all year was once said to protect a house from fire and what other danger?

Lightning and fire were the dangers an old bunch was kept to ward off, and it was only swapped for a fresh one the following Christmas Eve.

Kissing under the mistletoe was noted as popular among which group in late 18th-century England?

Servants are credited with keeping the tradition alive into Victorian times, when a woman who refused a kiss was said to be courting bad luck.

In the English editions of the Asterix comics, which villager cuts mistletoe for the magic potion?

Getafix is Panoramix in the original French, and his potion gives the villagers superhuman strength. Its full recipe is never revealed, though lobster is an optional extra.

The Latin word for mistletoe gave English which adjective, thanks to the plant's gluey seed coating?

Viscous comes from viscum, the Latin name for both mistletoe and the glue made from it, so thick syrups are described with a word borrowed from a Christmas plant.

Which Norse goddess made all things swear to spare her son, but skipped mistletoe as too young?

Frigg thought the mistletoe shoot too young to swear an oath, and that single exemption cost her son his life.

Because mistletoe robs its host of water yet makes its own sugars, botanists give it which label?

Hemiparasite means half-parasite, and every mistletoe qualifies. Some lean on the host so heavily that they turn yellow and all but stop making food.

What is the name of the root-like organ a mistletoe drives into a branch to tap its host's sap?

Haustorium tissue left alive in the wood lets some mistletoes regrow, which is why pruning has to take out the invaded wood itself.

The sticky juice of mistletoe fruit was once used to make which adhesive for trapping small animals?

Birdlime was smeared on perches so that small birds stuck fast. Italian makers heated mistletoe fruit with oil and added turpentine to keep it waterproof.

In Roman myth, which Trojan hero carried a golden bough, likened to mistletoe, into the underworld?

Aeneas needed the bough as proof of divine favour before he could pass into the land of the dead, and the poet Virgil likens it to mistletoe.

Which Roman author of the Natural History left the only ancient account of Gaul's mistletoe rite?

Pliny the Elder is the single source for the ceremony, though its elements, such as ritual banquets and reverence for the moon, are confirmed elsewhere in Celtic religion.

Which American author described the English mistletoe kissing custom in his Sketch Book of 1820?

Washington Irving wrote it up while living in England, in the same collection that gave the world Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

By old custom, mistletoe was the last Christmas greenery to be taken down, on which feast day?

Candlemas falls on 2 February, the fortieth day of the Christmas season, and custom also said the mistletoe must not touch the ground between its cutting and that day.

European mistletoe has one of the largest known examples of what, at about 90 billion base pairs?

Genome size in European mistletoe is roughly thirty times the human figure of about 3 billion base pairs.

Which glossy black bird of the American Southwest is the chief spreader of desert mistletoe seeds?

Phainopepla guts process the fruit so quickly that the seeds pass through intact, and the droppings land on the very branches a new mistletoe needs.

Because so many birds and mammals rely on mistletoes for food and nests, ecologists call them what?

Keystone species is the modern verdict on plants long written off as tree-killing pests. One study found more juniper seedlings sprouting where mistletoe grew.

In the Gaulish mistletoe rite described by a Roman writer, two of which animals were sacrificed?

Bulls were led beneath the tree with their horns bound for the first time, then killed once the mistletoe had been cut and caught.