The Feast Of The Mistletoe

  Mother Nature has thrown the Bayou plants for a loop.  For the past few years, we have had no winter, to speak of, so plants have no idea when to grow, when to blossom or when to produce.  The flora around here just sort of haphazardly throws blossoms out there in hopes that the weather is kind.  Some plants just give up hopes of having a normal life and don't produce at all since they have no idea when to do so.  The yaupon and other hollies did not produce more than a handful of berries which is sort of sad for the fauna of the area.  Come on, flora, get your act together!  Fauna depends on you!

  The lack of yaupon and other berries presented a problem for a flock of birds today.   While Son and I were out working on yard projects, I noticed forty or fifty birds fly into the yard.  Ahh, the cedar waxwings were making their annual appearance on the Bayou.  They come in droves to feast upon the many berries but, this year, they found scarce pickings.  After inspecting the area, the birds finally chose to fly to the tiptops of the white oaks.  There, among the bare limbs, the birds found their sustanence.  Mistletoe fills the tops of these trees and, obviously, this was a good bearing year for those plants.  The cedar waxwings feasted upon the pearly white mistletoe berries.

  Within the next twenty minutes, two more flocks came to the Bayou and were in search of food.  They promptly got word that there was nothing but the mistletoe berries so they, too, flew to the tops of the mistletoe laden oak trees.  The soft tweets were our music for the day!  After two or three hours, the birds moved northward.  They obviously believe spring is on its way and they need to head back home to nest.  Goodbye until next year, sweet friends.  Hopefully, we will have more to offer then.

It Came From Above!

  Weather is a fickle thing.  At least, the weather in the Deep South is.  In the early morning, you don a sweatshirt and jeans while walking through heavy fog and, by afternoon, you bask in the hot sunshine wearing a T-shirt after having kicked off the shoes.  Here it is the middle of December and our day was literally HOT!  The outdoor thermometer read 84!  Such temperatures sure did not match up with the snowmen decorations that I was placing in the entryway!  Don't despair!  Tomorrow, we shall see rain before a cold front smacks us with freezing temperatures!  My snowmen will feel right at home!

  Son and I cut firewood, today, in preparation for this next cold snap.  The two cast iron woodstoves will be chugging nicely, all the while, consuming the chunks of pecan wood.  Perhaps a bit of cooler weather will get me in that "Christmas Spirit" that I am so lacking.  Yes, the Little Bayou House is decorated with a tree, garland and lots of twinkly lights.  Yes, the table is being mounded over with delightful baked goods.  Yes, gifts are in every nook and corner.  No, I am not into it.  I do, however, love the coziness of the place. 

  This afternoon, while I was carrying an armload of firewood to the bin, something fell out of the old oak tree and smacked me on the head.  At first, I thought perhaps a squirrel binged me with an acorn but, when I stopped to check, I found it was a small sprig of mistletoe.  I have always heard you should stand beneath the mistletoe in hopes of catching a kiss from someone but I never knew the stuff would bean you on the head!  It was a good thing that this was just a twig and not the whole bunch that is growing in the treetop!

  Funny thing about that mistletoe stuff...it comes from the Anglo-Saxon words mistel and tan.  While that may seem logical, it is illogical that we wish to kiss under it when you realize that the word mistel means "dung" and tan means "twig".  So...poop on a stick is the stuff you are hanging above your doorway while awaiting your honey bunches.  Sorry, that does not sound overly romantic.  Neither does having the stuff drop out of trees on top of your head.

 

 

Poop on a stick

  Well, now that does not sound to very pleasant!  Poop on a stick...ewww!  Actually, that is the literal name of mistletoe.  The word comes from the Anglo-Saxon word mistiltane which basically means dung on a twig.  Yep, that stuff we kiss under come Christmastime has a lovely name, dung on a stick! All of this makes you wonder why? Why name a plant "poop on a stick"?  Why kiss under something that sounds so disgusting?  And most importantly, why am I writing all of this? Well, that is the whole point.  We shall delve into this matter a bit further!  Come on now, I know you are so excited!

  First the reason I am loading your brain with the mystical lore of mistletoe is simply because a huge chunk of it fell from the oak tree next to the house.  The strong winds of the recent cold front snapped a bundle of the plant from the limbs and plopped it right on the front steps.  When I tried to let Ms. Ez, the Bayou Dog, out to do her business, the mound of mistletoe muddled her mind.  She immediately started barking at the heap.  "Oh, my!  Something is amiss here, my friend!" she seemed to be saying.  So, out in the rain I went to retrieve the massive hunk of mistletoe.  She, then, happily trotted down the hillside leaving me to ponder the ways of the mistletoe legends.

  The "poop on a stick" came about as I tried to explain to Michael how the stuff got its name.  Once I told him the literal meaning of mistiltane, he dubbed the stuff "poop on a stick" and not dung on a twig.  The name has several good reasons behind it, though.  One the white berries do, indeed, look a lot like bird poop if squished.  I suppose some old chap back in Old England might have seen this and told his child to watch out for the dung on the twig. (Makes sense, right?) Anyway, the more scientific reason is that the mistletoe berries are eaten by birds who then fly to rest on a branch.  They digest their food and poop.  If by chance a seed that has passed through the bird hits a branch and becomes lodged, a new plant forms.  Hence, poop on a branch.

  Why do we kiss under such a vile-named plant at Christmastime? Well, that goes a long way back as well.  Those Anglo-Saxons were at it again.  They tied the stuff to the legend of Freya, the goddess of love, beauty and fertility.  If a maiden was found standing unawares under a sprig of mistletoe, a man had to kiss her. Later, it became a custom for couples to kiss under the stuff to declare their love for one another. During the holidays, each couple who kissed had to pick off a berry. Once the sprig was bare, NO MORE KISSES!  After the holidays, the branch was burned to ensure the marriage of the couples.  If a maiden went unkissed, she was bound to remain unwed for the next year. I can only imagine that the unkissed lass declared the stuff to be "just poop on a stick anyway!"

  So, you see, this was all important!  My huge mass of mistletoe, the regrettable name of said plant and the custom of embracing beneath a sprig of it, all were here just to let you know that the oak tree is full of the parasitic plant.  Which in itself is pretty magical!  According to legend, only the mistletoe that grows in oak trees has any power whatsoever!  See!  I do have a massive mound of magical, mystical mistletoe!  (Not to be confused with poop on a stick!)

 

The Sprig of Death?

Michael and I were out and about early this morning.  We spent most of the day preparing for what could possibly be our coldest time of the winter here on the Bayou.  Our temperatures are supposed to dip down to the mid-teens Monday night which is quite rare here.  That said, it is easy to see why this calls for a bit of extra work.  What most folks north of us have already done has become of high importance to the bayou folk.  Things like wrapping pipes, blocking off drafts and wintering plants is not something we have to do often.  He and I "took care of those pipes, plants and pets" as the weatherman here is fond of saying.

While out back, piling tons of mulch around the bases of all the citrus trees, I noticed a sprig of green in the plum tree.  "Silly tree!  Don't you know that it is far too early to be sprouting those tender leaves?" I said to anyone within earshot which turned out to be only the plum tree and Ms. Ez, the dog.  The tree did not respond and Ms. Ez was far too busy nosing the mulch to pay any heed to my query. On closer inspection, I came to the conclusion that our plum tree needed help.  These were not fresh new plum leaves sprouting from the limb but a parasite!  Mistletoe!  Oh, no!  My poor plum tree happened to be the repository of mistletoe seeds that were placed there by an unwitting bird. The parasitic plant can prove to be the death of a fruit tree if left unattended.  Not only will it weaken the tree by sapping the nutrients from it but this weakness will open it up to disease.  The small tree will not stand a chance! That wee sprig of mistletoe could possibly bring on an untimely death to my plum tree!

So another job was added to the list.  We had to stop everything to remove the mistletoe from the plum tree before it became to well established.  The job was not difficult with the mistletoe still being quite small but it soon could have been quite the ordeal.  I am sure glad I saw it while it was still manageable!  Don't get me wrong, I do not mind mistletoe growing in some of the trees just not my fruit trees!  I know that a lot of birds depend on the berries for food and that, in turn, can be good for my trees as the birds eat bugs. Perhaps I will take the tiny plants that were removed and reposition them in a better spot.  One that will not impede the growth of my plum tree!

Under the Mistletoe!

Ok, so maybe I am a bit late with the mistletoe tidings since usually, the mistletoe for whatever reason is considered to be a Christmas and on into New Year's thing. Today, however, when we were out clearing some unwanted acorns out of the lily beds, Son and I came across a large branch of the stuff. It had fallen from one of the oak trees and fell smack dab in the middle of the walkway. Normally, I would have just tossed it on the wheelbarrow to be hauled to the brush pile but I started pondering over the popular tradition attached to this evergreen. Kissing under the mistletoe is a holiday tradition from far back in time..eating mistletoe, however, is NOT! To start with, mistletoe is supposed to be highly poisonous! If eaten the berries and leaves can cause severe stomach problems and could possibly prove to be fatal! So just how in the world did the age-old tradition of "kissing under the mistletoe" ever get started? I know it is supposed to bring "luck" and the promise of a happy relationship to those who embrace under the sprig that is hung in the doorway but think about it..why would you ever take to the chance of bringing the poisonous plant into the house in the first place? And what if..just what if..whilst you were kissing your beloved under said poisonous plant, a single berry should drop off and land right between your puckered lips? Could you possibly be accused of trying to kill your beloved by poisoning him/her? Hmmmm..It just does not seem to be of the brightest logic to use mistletoe as a decoration. Why not use something like...poison ivy? It is quite lovely with its three leaves, white berries and wintry red leaves! Now, I am saying that in jest but to me it makes just about as much sense as using the green leaves and white berries of the mistletoe! Perhaps using mistletoe could be construed as "loving someone to death"? Oh, lets hope not!

Anyway, back to my large clump of mistletoe. I wondered just how in the world those big clumps ever get started up in the tree limbs. It is not as if they climb up there! I pondered that question and decided I needed to do a bit of research on the stuff. I came across a good bit of information that stated that if you squish the berries (seeds) they exude a sticky white liquid. This goop is squished out when the seeds pass through a bird after it has eaten the berry. (Don't ask...I guess they are just not poisonous to birds only to romantic couples trying to sneak a smooch!) When the bird poops the out the seed, if it happens to land on a suitable limb there it will stick! After about six weeks of hanging onto the limb, the seed sprouts and a new clump of mistletoe takes root in the host tree. You see, this mistletoe is a parasite that needs a host tree to provide it with moisture and nutrients so it is highly important that the bird chooses an appropriate tree on which to deposit the seed! Anyway..the mistletoe will grow there until it is knocked down either by the wind or someone trying to collect it for decorations!

I do find it strange that while most every source claims that the mistletoe berries and leaves are toxic, there are those that use it medicinally. It is the main ingredient in some of the alternative cancer treatments but no clinical studies support these claims. It would be highly interesting if something attached to beliefs of acquiring a long relationship could possibly become something that would prolong life in general. Then...my clump of wayward mistletoe would not be destined for the trash heap!