MISTLETOE MYSTERIES
Apple-Tree Favoured Mistletoe, which, like liolly, has been associated from time immemorial witn Christmas festivities, is one of the most mysterious plants. Modern science has solved many plant problemSj but the mistletoe retains its secrets. Why is it, for instance, that thougli mistletoe grows commonly on apple trees, it rarely grows on pear trees? Yet the pear and the apple are closely related. The beautiful g;oldon mistletoo af Soutliern and , eastern Europe bears" clusters of golden berries. There are about 00 other species — several are natives of Soutk Afrlca, and one is a native of Australia. Not all the species are parasltic. Mistletoe grows extromely rarely on the oak, anfl possibly this' accounts for the Drnids' veneration for a plant of mistletoe growing on an oak tree. There are only tliree or four mistletoe oaks in England. Tlie counties in which it grows most commonly are Essex, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. In the north it is scarce, and in olden times it was a north country custom to make a substitute for it for the Christmas festivities. This substitute took the form of two hoops of wood, crossed, covered with greenery and adorned with various fruits. , /
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HBHETR19371217.2.152.21
Bibliographic details
Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 72, 17 December 1937, Page 24 (Supplement)
Word Count
197MISTLETOE MYSTERIES Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 72, 17 December 1937, Page 24 (Supplement)
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in