SATURDAY MARCH 4 2017 WEST COUNTRY LIFE 98 WEST COUNTRY LIFE SATURDAY MARCH 4 2017 WCL-E01-S2 WCL-E01-S2

The real story behindthis Christmas favourite

Mistletoe expert Jonathan Briggs is half way up agrand old Bramley apple tree collecting thepearly harvest that will help keep a much-lovedChristmas tradition alive for generations toc o m e.

Christmas itself may be far behind but now ’tisthe season to plant that strange partly parasiticmust-have decoration, redolent of kissing, Norsemyths and strange Druidic practices.

February and March are the perfect months totry your hand, and growing mistletoe is easierthan many people think, for the well-known claim(made even by some professional gardeners) thatthe seed must be placed in a cut in a branch of asuitable tree is an urban myth.

All that needs to be done is to smear the sticky,gelatinous, contents of the berry, along with thesingle seed, on the underside of a branch, andwait (with patience). Mistletoe is a very slowgrower in its first three or four years. By the endof the first year all that will have happened is thata tiny green sucker will have emerged from thesilvery seed and embedded itself under the bark.Enthusiasts will have to wait another two to threeyears before the first upright growth appears,with its distinctive pair of leaves. After thatgrowth is faster.

Jonathan, based at Stonehouse, Gloucester-shire, runs the Mistletoe Matters consultancy,and has a special interest in all parasitic plants.He harvests berries for the online English Mistle-toe Shop, and offers advice to many organisationsand individuals. His nature conservation mistle-toe plantings have included work in the groundsof Lambeth Palace, Buckingham Palace, KewGardens and Chelsea Physic Garden.

The English Mistletoe Shop supplies grow-your-own kits containing 50 freshly picked ber-ries, enough for ten plantings. The kits come withplenty of information on which species of treesare suitable, photographs and planting guidance.Often the berries will be sent out on the day ofharvesting, or within 24 hours. Jonathan recom-mends planting the seeds within two weeks ofreceiving them and advises that the berries bekept in the light, and cool before planting.

Most mistletoe grows in the South and West –and the wonderful old orchard at Brookthorpe,near Stonehouse, where we meet, is perfect territ-ory. Here Jonathan is advising David Kaspar, whowith Helen Brent-Smith produces apple and pearjuice, cider and perry under the Day’s Cottagelabel. David, who is president of the Gloucester-shire Orchard Trust, has managed this orchardfor 25 years, with loving care. He understands thevalue of traditional orchards as wildlife habitats,and is happy to have mistletoe around. But he isanxious that after many years mistletoe hastaken too strong a hold on the magnificentBramley, planted along with the rest of the orch-ard back in 1912.

Mistletoe grows in two ways once it becomesestablished. As well as branches, it extends run-ners under the bark, so that a new shoot mayappear some distance away. Many of the seedsmay appear to be singles, but are in fact twinsboth of which can grow.

Plants are either male or female. The femalestend to be a more vivid green, and of course carrythe berries. Male plants tend to have yellowerleaves, although the colouration can be reversed.Clearly to have mature mistletoe with berries

OUTDOORS

Jonathan Briggs collects mistletoe from a 105-year-old Bramley apple tree at Brookthorpe, Gloucestershire

enthusiasts must raise several plants to be sure ofproducing males and females.

Mistletoe is not totally parasitic. Its leavesproduce chlorophyll, but it needs to take water,and nutrients from its host.

“The bark of a tree is living, while the wood iseffectively only the water-transmitting system,”explains Jonathan.

“What the mistletoe needs to do is connect tothe growth cells between the bark and the woodand convince them that it is a new branch andthat the growth cells must support it. You can seefrom this that the idea that a mistletoe seedshould be planted in a cut in the branch – withinthe wood itself – is entirely wrong.”

Another myth is that mistle thrushes propagatethe seeds by trying to eat the berries, findingthem too sticky and then wiping their beaks,smearing the berries onto branches. In fact mistlethrushes swallow berries with gusto, but theystill play a vital role. Sticky strings of half-digested berries, complete with undigested seedsemerge in due course, and since mistle thrushesare territorial the “mistletoey turds” as Jonathandubbs them, may well land on a branch of thesame tree.

“Of course if they miss a branch they aredoomed,” says Jonathan, “and even if they landon the branch some will be left dangling andf ail.”

Jo n at h a n’s consultancy partner, CarolineTandy, has no trouble finding a dangling string ofseeds, and once I know what I am looking for I toocan spot plenty of places where greedy thrusheshave left their mark.

Another bird could be helping mistletoe spreadmore quickly than it used to do, particularly inthe eastern counties.

While climate change may be playing a part,Jonathan says the fact that many more continent-al blackcaps are over-wintering in Britain may besignificant.

Blackcaps do smear the berries on branches,and again we see plenty of examples in theBrookthorpe orchard. British blackcaps are notresponsible, for they fly migrate for the winter.

It is not just blackcaps and mistle thrushes thatlike the plant. We can see that deer have eatenevery leaf from bunches that Jonathan cut the daybefore, and he says that sheep gorge on it too. Yetmistletoe contains some toxins. Even so it is usedin some alternative medicine, and a mistletoe teais popular in Germany, but Jonathan stresses: “Ialways say don’t eat it.”

Green in winter when so much of nature seemsdead, mistletoe has been associated with fertilitysince at least the Middle Ages. It’s good to knowthat its own fertility is not in doubt.Tina Rowe

For more information visit www.mistletoe.org.uk andwww.englishmistletoeshop.co.uk

“

”Mistletoe is not totally parasitic, but itneeds to take water, and nutrientsfrom its hostFrom top, mistletoe seeds dangle

from the finger of Jonathan Briggs;young mistletoe growing in anorchard; mistletoe seeds in thedroppings left behind by a mistlethrush

PICTURES: STEVE ROBERTS