Mistletoe (Viscum album)

Mistletoe (Viscum album)


Description
Mistletoe is a half parasitic plant, 30-60 cm tall, it grows on tree branches and has the appearance of a bush, straight or bowed down. The plant stem is short, cylindrical and thick, branched 2 in 2, thickened at the nodes, where it breaks easily. It yellow-green, and sometimes yellow-gray in color. The leaves are opposed, with full edges, lacking petiole, greenish-yellow in color, thick and similar to skin to the touch, they have elongated-oval shape, wider at the tip than at the base, with a rounded tip, no hairs with 4-5 visible veins on the underside. The lenght of the leaves is between 2 and 4 cm, sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller. They do not fall in autumn and remain green in winter. The flowers are small, no tail, placed in pairs of 2 or 3 at the base of the branches. Mistletoe has two kinds of flowers, male and female, each one placed on separate bushes. The fruits are round, at first green, then white, placed 2 or 3 in one place, featuring two seeds covered with a sticky substance. Their ripening ends in December. A plant lives about 70 years. It blooms in March-April. Mistletoe parasites preferably poplar, willow, birch, pear trees, apple trees, service trees, hawthorn, plum tree, cherry tree, acacia, maple tree, chestnut, lime, generally all deciduous and coniferous trees and rarely ash, horn beam and alder.    


Harvest
You can gather all young branches with leaves from the mistletoe. Harvesting can be done all year.


Drying Mode
Drying mistletoe is done only naturally, in well ventilated rooms, away from light. From 2-3 kg of fresh plant you can obtain 1 kg of dried product. 


Uses
Mistletoe is used as a hypotensive. Internally: cardiotonic, antimiotic, brahicardizant.


Observations
Medicinal mistletoe is not to be confused with oak mistletoe or pearl (Loranthus europaeus), characterized by yellowish-dark fruit, oval shaped, arranged as grapes and stems of brown-blackish to dark gray color. Mistletoe treatment is done only under medical supervision. Mistletoe is a parasitic plant found on fruit trees and some wild trees. It has been agreed that there is a correlation between the toxicity of the plant and its origin (on what tree it grew on). The most valuable mistletoe is the one that grows on apple trees. In descending order follows the one that grows on pear trees, fir, birch, rosewood and ash.




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