Episode 3: Mistletoe
On this month’s episode of Flowers & Folklore Sarah tells you all about mistletoe.
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Transcript
Hello, and welcome to Flowers and Folklore. I'm Sarah, a florist living in Glasgow in the UK. I run a business called Rook Botanics, which I started in 2020. I create flowers for funerals, weddings, I run lots of workshops, and I now host this podcast. I also write a newsletter called The Foibles of a Florist.
You can find a link for it in the show notes. If you love flowers and folklore and odd floral facts, then you are in the right place. A quick note before we get started. I love reading and learning about flowers and the history and tales associated with them. There's so many different regional stories and so much lore,
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so what you may have heard or read may be different to what I talk about in the podcast. You're absolutely welcome to get in touch and let me know what you've heard. I'm always keen to learn more. If you stick around till the end of the show,
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then I'll share the best ways for you to get in touch. On with the show. Hello and welcome to the third episode of Flowers and Folklore. Today is a festive episode and we're going to be talking about mistletoe. Before we get started, I'm just going to warn you that it's very windy outside.
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I've tried my best to soundproof the room I'm working in, but if you can hear the wind howling in the background, then I'm very sorry. I'm really excited to get started with this episode. It was requested by a listener, so thank you very much. We are going to begin with a disclaimer though. Mistletoe is poisonous.
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And it's not just the berries, the leaves, the stems, the berries, all parts of the plant are poisonous. Mistletoe has a toxic substance called foratoxin, which is most concentrated within the leaves. If you're going to decorate your house with mistletoe, please just keep this in mind, particularly if you have pets or kids.
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Mistletoe does fall apart quite easily, particularly in the warmth, the berries will drop as well. So just please keep this in mind. we're going to start with five facts about mistletoe number one mistletoe is a parasitic plant this means it has to grow on other trees in order to live number
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two mistletoe has small white berries that grow in clusters of two to six number three it is dioecious meaning male and female flowers are produced on separate plants. Number four, in the UK it is mainly found in the southwest Midlands.
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Number five, the most common tree it grows on is apple but it grows on over 230 tree species. Mistletoe has some really alternative names and as we get on with the episode you'll see why it got some of its names. but some of my favorite ones were Holy Wood, Witch's Broom, Thunder Beesom, Wood of the Cross,
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All Heal, Druid's Herb, Kiss and Go. The plant's scientific name is Viscous Album, And this actually translates to white goo. This is very appropriate because if you have ever hung mistletoe in your home, then you know that eventually the berries turn to this horrible gooey, sticky-ness. It got its common name from the Anglo-Saxon words missal,
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which means dung, and tan, which means twig. It was originally believed that mistletoe propagated via bird droppings. I'm fairly certain this has been disproven, but it was believed that's how it's bred. The birds would eat the berries, and then as they were flying around, they would excrete the seeds, and it was believed that wherever this fell,
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mistletoe would spring up. As I mentioned during the five facts, mistletoe grows on a host, which in this case is a tree, rather than growing in the ground. I always like to start these episodes telling you what the particular plant or flower means in the language of flowers, also known as fluorography.
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I thought it was quite interesting that mistletoe means insurmountable difficulties. It just goes to show you how the symbolism and meanings of each plant and flower can change over time. Throughout history mistletoe has had many different uses. Traditionally it was considered a heal all. This is a powerful healing herb that can fix anything.
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It was used to treat nervous disorders, epilepsy, infertility and other ailments. It has also been used in modern treatments. to help with high blood pressure and it was trialled as a complementary treatment in cancer therapy. During medieval times it was known to rural people as the best cure for a barren woman.
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Mistletoe is also an ingredient in bisca which is a pomace brandy based liqueur made in Istria which is the largest peninsula within the adriatic sea the berries of mistletoe have also been used to create bird lime this is an adhesive that is created with the sticky juice of the
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berries and would be used to trap small animals and birds in tembury wells a town in the uk there is a mistletoe festival and each year they crown a mistletoe queen. As well as the practical and healing usages of mistletoe, there's also so many cultural and superstitious practices associated with it.
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Mistletoe was believed to offer protection against evil, lightning and sickness. In Margaret Baker's book, Discovering the Folklore of Plants, she wrote about how mistletoe is a lightning plant. this is a plant that will protect your home from being struck by lightning i found this particularly poetic because of the forked shape of the branches is quite
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reminiscent of the shape of lightning in the sky and the hedgerow apothecary Christine Iverson wrote, In some countries, sprigs were placed in the stable to keep livestock safe from local witches. In England and Wales, farmers hung a bunch of mistletoe in the byre of the first cow that calved to
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ensure the health and milk production of the herd for the year. The ancient Celts believed hanging mistletoe over a baby's cradle would stop it from being stolen by evil fairies. It seems that it might have been the druids that initiated the custom of hanging mistletoe above their doors.
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They hung it around the winter solstice to protect their homes against evil and bring good luck. Mistletoe was revered, but especially mistletoe that was collected from oak trees. If mistletoe-bearing oaks were felled, this was considered a disaster. Mistletoe was seen as a celebration of the beginning of winter.
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Stories tell of a high-ranking priest who would cut down mistletoe with a golden knife. I also saw references to a golden sickle. It was believed that if the mistletoe landed on the ground, it would lose all its magical properties, so it was captured by a cloak before it could touch the ground.
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Throughout my research, I found lots of links with fertility. This next bit is a bit graphic, so if you have small children listening, then please skip ahead. When all was dead with winter, and mistletoe was thriving, the druids believed this represented life and vitality. was seen to be the semen of the oak king.
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I'm sure you'll never look at mistletoe berries in the same way. And so mistletoe was seen as a symbol of hope during the darkest time of the year. Despite the druids hanging mistletoe from their doors, it seemed that they didn't consider kissing underneath it part of the custom. In the Hedgerow Apothecary by Christine Iverson,
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she mentioned that because mistletoe was associated with druids and paganism, that some churches banned mistletoe from their premises to try and squash out paganism. I don't think there still is a ban, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone had heard of this ban before.
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In Norse mythology, there's a particular story about mistletoe that I'd like to share with you. The story is about Frigga, who was the goddess of married love, the hearth, prophecy, clairvoyance, and motherhood. She was also known as Freya. As she is the goddess of clairvoyance,
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it meant that she was able to see the fates of men and gods. At the end of the winter solstice, she gave birth to her son, Belger. Unfortunately, she foresaw her son dying young. And so she tried her best to ensure this wouldn't happen. She was frantic and made everyone and everything...
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promise they would not harm her son. The gods found it amusing to try and hurt him. They would hurl rocks, but he always remained unharmed. This annoyed Loki, who was a mischievous god. It made him jealous. He would question, why is Bulger so fortunate? Why can nothing hurt him?
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He was determined, and so he disguised himself as a woman and went to see Frigga. He pretended to worry about her son. saying the gods throw rocks at him. But Frigga just waved her hand. She said she didn't fear anything. She said it didn't matter what the gods did because she had made everyone and
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everything promise to not hurt him. Loki asked her, but how? How did you do this? Frigga smiled. I travelled everywhere and everyone and everything promised except for one far away plant. This intrigued Loki and So he went and found the plant. It was mistletoe.
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He found it growing on a tree and so he took a piece and he threw it at Bulger. Instantly he hit the ground and he was dead. Frigga cried and cried and cried over her son's dead body. her tears turned into the white berries of mistletoe.
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She placed these berries on her son's breast and this brought him back to life. Frigga praised the mistletoe and it became known as a symbol of love and peace. It's such a lovely tale of motherly devotion. The custom of kissing underneath mistletoe seemed to gain traction during the 18th and 19th century,
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particularly amongst a serving class in England. Any man was able to kiss any woman standing under the mistletoe. It was considered bad luck to refuse, good luck to accept. With each kiss, a berry would be plucked until there were none left. This kind of gives me slightly creepy vibes.
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And so I would just like to say that we take a very strong stance on consensual, non-coercive kissing. It seems that the practice of kissing under mistletoe didn't exist as a popular tradition prior to 1720. John Colbatch, an English apothecary and physician, wrote two books on mistletoe in 1719 and 1720.
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There were sections on superstitions and customs associated with mistletoe, but there's no mention of kissing underneath it. It's considered that the earliest reference of kissing under mistletoe comes from a song in a musical comedy called Two to One. This was published in 1784. The verses read, Since then,
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the tradition of kissing under mistletoe has been firmly cemented in popular culture. In the 19th century, there was lots of references to Kissing on the Mistletoe in America and in England. Charles Dickens wrote about it in the Pickwick Papers, which was published in 1836. And Washington Irving's short stories also mention Kissing on the Mistletoe during Christmas.
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There is just one mention of mistletoe in Shakespeare and it's rather sinister and it's not associated with Christmas parties and stolen kisses. It instead has quite dark and dangerous connotations. In the magical world of Harry Potter, Harry and Cho Chang share a kiss underneath mistletoe and Luna Lovegood
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adds her own piece of folklore by suggesting that mistletoe is usually infested with nargles for those of you who've listened to the podcast before you'll know that i'm utterly obsessed with the secret garden and so i was absolutely thrilled when i made the connection with mistletoe manor and Messelmoor.
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This is the fictional location where the secret garden takes place and it's derived from the word mistletoe. Messelmoor is obviously a fictional place but it's meant to be set in Yorkshire and like most moors there probably wouldn't have been many trees. so it's unlikely that there would have been much mistletoe around Mistlethwaite Manor.
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I found it quite interesting that the high altar at York Minster is decorated with mistletoe each Christmas Eve, and it has been for centuries. There's no actual mention of mistletoe in the secret garden, or at least as far as I can remember, but there is a mention of a mistlethrush, Dickon, who becomes Mary's friend.
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he draws a mistlethrush's nest and leaves this in the secret garden to confirm to mary that he will keep her secret completely by accident i came across something called missile go this is the first national level mistletoe survey that's been running i think since the 1990s it's ran by the university of oxford and the tree
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council i follow the true council on substack which is how i came across this so you can download an app And you can record the level of mistletoe abundance in your location. I'm assuming this is just for across the UK.
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But I'll include a link in the show notes so you can read up on it and see whether this is something you'd like to get involved with. I recorded a chunk of this episode. in very windy Glasgow. I recorded the second part in a cottage on the Chatsworth estate which is where I'm
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staying for Christmas and I obviously had mistletoe on the mind because I packed several books obviously but I packed one called Mistletoe Winter which is by Roy Dennis. and it's a collection of essays on nature and conservation of British wildlife. I've not had a chance to read it yet,
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but hopefully I'll find some time during the festive break. I really hope you've enjoyed listening to it, and whether you celebrate the solstice, Christmas, Yule, anything or nothing, i really hope you enjoy the festive season take some time to rest and manage to find some light in these dark months if you happen to listen to this before
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christmas day and you're in glasgow and you need a last minute christmas present then you can head to my website which is www.rookbotanics.com and you can purchase a gift voucher for one of my workshops next year if you're not in glasgow or scotland and still
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want to give the gift of learning then i also have an ebook called flower arranging at home which you can also buy from our website it's a digital download so you can download it for yourself or for a loved one and give it to them this christmas
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For a list of the sources that I used for this episode, please head over to my Substack. There's a link in the show notes. Substack allows you to leave comments on each episode as well. So if you have any thoughts or feedback, please let me know.
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Unless you've only got horrible things to say, then, you know, you can just scroll past. It would be really great if you could share this episode with a friend, subscribe to the show or leave me a five star review. Alternatively, you can do none of those things and that's totally fine. I'm just so pleased that you're here.
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Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next month.
