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Mistletoe Facts
BY
AMANDA SCHUPAK
Think mistletoe is all about holiday romance?
Think again. The festive plant -- which also goes by the name devil's fuge --
holds some sinister secrets.
Mistletoe is an evergreen pest that attaches
itself to trees, plants and shrubs, stealing their nutrients and water. This
can weaken or disfigure the host plant, and eventually even kill it.
"When you get a
heavy infestation, it keeps sucking strength away from the plant," according to Rick
Gibson, a plant expert at the University of Arizona. "It's almost like
a cancerous type of growth."
2. Mistletoe is really hard to get rid of
Once it infects a tree, mistletoe is
difficult to remove. When its seeds sprout, they grow through the bark of trees
and into their tissues, extending up and down within the branches.
Even if you cut off the visible portion of
the invader, new plants often grow from inside the host. The most effective way
to fight it is to remove an infected branch or limb entirely.
3. Mistletoe is poisonous
Eating any part of the plant can cause
drowsiness, blurred vision, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, weakness and seizures.
The symptoms are caused by a poisonous
ingredient called phoratoxin, which is found in all parts of the plant, including
the berries, and is especially concentrated in the leaves.
Eating the plant raw or drinking it in tea
can cause poisoning.
4. But it also has medicinal properties
Despite its dangers, mistletoe has a history
of medicinal use.
The European varieties have been used for
centuries in traditional medicine to treat seizures, headaches, infertility,
hypertension and arthritis.
According to the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of
Health, mistletoe injections are available only in clinical trials in the U.S.,
but are available by prescription in Europe, where the plant is used as a
treatment for cancer.
5. Mistletoe is also a desert plant
European mistletoe grows in temperate regions
all over the world.
There are also several species in America
that thrive in the deserts in the Southwest, where they live on palo verde,
mesquite, juniper, pine and other trees.
6. Mistletoe comes in different forms
Not all mistletoe has the festive holiday
look most of us are used to.
Some broadleaf mistletoes have green stems
with oval-shaped leaves and small, sticky, whitish berries.
Dwarf mistletoes are smaller, with scaly
yellow or orange leaves. Some have no leaves at all and some look like a dense
bundle of twigs stuck in the branches of another tree.
7. And goes by many different names
Mistletoe is also known as birdlime,
all-heal, golden bough, drudenfuss, iscador and devil's fuge.
Amanda
Schupak
is the science and technology editor at CBSNews.com
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