Now that the leaves have mostly fallen, we can see the mistletoe that lives there year-round. Did you know that hundreds of years ago it was believed all the energy that was in the tree was concentrated and stored in those green mistletoe plants over the winter? It’s true, but let’s do a little more digging into what we know about mistletoe.

From the writings of Aristotle (383-322 BC) we know that he believed mistletoe just appeared out of nowhere. However, a student of his by the name to Theophrastus (320-270 BC) theorized that mistletoe actually grew from seeds that had passed through the bird’s digestive system and ended up being deposited on the branches of the tree…and he was right. While this gave some insight how the plant grew, we learn about the history and customs associated with mistletoe from Pliny the Elder (23-70 AD). One of the things for which Pliny the Elder is most remembered for are his writings for his encyclopedic Naturalis History (Natural History). This collection of writings became the model for what we now know as the encyclopedia.

From Pliny’s writings, we know that in his time period, oak trees were considered sacred… sacred because of his thoughts about the mistletoe storing all the energy from the tree during the winter. Because of the belief that these small plants contained this concentrated energy, it was not unusual for people to remove some of the mistletoe to bring it home in hopes that all this life-energy would protect them and theirs from harm.

Flash forward a few hundred years and we find the custom of kissing under the mistletoe starting to show up. It seems that kissing under the mistletoe was considered a good strategy to increase the fertility of those kissing. I can see where this could have been related to the idea that these plants contained high energy, or maybe it was just hormones running rampant…not sure. Either way, this tradition persists today.

Now let’s flash forward to Oklahoma’s history with mistletoe. Our tale begins with the Chicago World’s Fair in 1983. For the fair, the Women’s Congress of the Chicago World’s Fair proposed that all the states participating in the fair should have a unique floral emblem. At this time Oklahoma was not yet a state, but they still wanted to participate in the fair, so they set out to pick the official floral emblem.

John Wimberly, who was an official Oklahoma Territorial Representative introduced a bill in the Territorial Legislature that would designate mistletoe as the territory’s floral emblem. He chose mistletoe suggesting that in the harshest of winters, the only green plant to be found was mistletoe. As you can imagine, there were some objections since mistletoe is considered a parasitic plant, but he prevailed, and Oklahoma had it’s official floral emblem. In addition, mistletoe was apparently used back in the day as greenery to decorate caskets at funerals since there wasn’t much else green around in the winter.

A few years later, Bill Murray (aka Alfalfa Bill Murray) wanted to change the floral emblem to alfalfa. While Murray was later successful in his bid to become governor, his effort to dethrone mistletoe failed.

Even more years later, in 1986 Rep. Kelly Haney from Seminole, introduced a bill to designate the Indian Blanket as our official state wildflower. This bill passed and over twenty Native American tribes were represented at the designation ceremony. So then we had an official floral emblem and official wildflower.

Then in 2004, Gov. Brad Henry signed a law identifying the Oklahoma Rose as our official state flower. Now we had an official emblem, wildflower, and flower, which brings us to the present. But what about the plant?

While mistletoe plants are either male or female, it’s the female plants that produce the white berries. Certain types of birds, such as cedar waxwings and robins like to eat those berries. After eating, they digest the pulp, but the seeds are discarded in the bird’s excrement. Doing this while sitting on a branch of the tree will deposit a seed on that branch. In fact, the Old English word “mistletoe” apparently means “dung on a twig” which sounds a little like a horticultural “put down” I may need to work into my vocabulary.

If you see a tree with mistletoe up in the branches, you’ll notice that some of these trees have just a few while others have a lot. The reason for this is that the more mistletoe plants in a tree there are, the more birds that come to feed and secondarily make their deposits and so on until there are a lot of mistletoe plants in a single tree.

Mistletoe is categorized as a parasitic plant meaning that it draws all of its nutrients from the host tree. Most trees can tolerate a little mistletoe without issue, however as the quantity of mistletoe plants increase, they can diminish the quantity of available nutrients for the host tree. With enough mistletoe plants, the tree can be killed.

Control of mistletoe is a bit problematic since it’s usually found high up in the trees making pruning out the mistletoe a challenge. There is a product called Florel that can reduce flowering of these plants which will reduce the berry production, but to be effective there are some pretty specific instructions concerning timing of the application. For the most part we just live and let live.

If you want to hang some mistletoe above the door in your home, after you handle the plant, be sure to wash your hands with hot, soapy water and keep it away from pets and children since the berries are poisonous. Now you know. See you in the garden.

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: Pixabay