This wonderful illustration of red-berried mistletoe Viscum orientale (intended for gardeners or amateur botanists), is around 130 years old and is part of the Museum’s collection of botanical illustrations, housed in the Herbarium along with pressed plants and models. Red-berried mistletoe is fairly widespread in warm countries including Lebanon and Portugal and grows on olive trees.

 

Mistletoe is a well-loved plant with white berries and oval evergreen leaves, and for a long time it has been associated with Christmas. Common mistletoe, Viscum album , grows mainly on apple, hawthorn and poplar trees in the south Midlands. It is parasitic which means it uses its host tree for nutrients and water.

 

The name mistletoe is said to derive from the Celtic word for ‘all-heal’ and has long been used in herbal remedies and medicine. According to Pliny the Elder, the druids of Britain used to harvest mistletoe from their sacred oaks (and oak is a rare host for mistletoe) to use in rituals and in medicine. It’s not clear exactly what they used it for – but it has had a reputation ever since as an all-heal and for use to enhance fertility, cure nervous disorders and relieve high blood pressure. 

 

Lindow Man, a Roman-era bog body found preserved in Cheshire and exhibited at Manchester Museum in 1987, 1991 and 2008, was found to have a few grains of mistletoe pollen in his stomach. Might this suggest he was taking some mistletoe medicine? And interestingly, the use of mistletoe is gaining popularity in cancer therapy.

 

Wishing you health and happiness this Christmas!

 

Lindsey Loughtman