Mistletoe - Introducing an Unusual Plant
Clinical Studies and Weleda
By Gianfranco Grazi, MD
What is Mistletoe?
Mistletoes are semi-parasitic plants that grow on trees, bushes, and other plants. They draw water and mineral salts from their hosts, but they also carry out photosynthesis and produce carbohydrates that are full of energy.
There are several hundred mistletoe species which grow mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. They have various forms, leaves, blossoms, and fruits. There are evergreen mistletoes and others which shed their leaves at certain times. Some of them never grow leaves. Some have very beautiful colored flowers while others have flowers so tiny that they are barely visible. Their berries also vary considerably in size, color, and form. There are white, bright red, orange, and yellow berries.
Most mistletoe fruits contain a single seed, ensheathed by a sticky, slimy flesh. This flesh helps the seeds to stick to branches where they germinate and grow. Some mistletoes form small, explosive berries which hurl their seeds into the environment, but most fruits are eaten by certain birds which then drop the seeds in various places.
European Mistletoe
Viscum album is the only mistletoe species that grows wild in central Europe. This evergreen plant with its white berries is used as a decoration and a gift at Christmastime. It is also the only mistletoe species that grows as far north as Oslo, Stockholm, and equivalent latitudes. Extracts from this mistletoe are used in the treatment of cancer. It is useful to study the life of the mistletoe and to find out something about its properties. This can sometimes help to make improvements in the production of mistletoe preparations and in cancer therapy.
If we take a walk on a clear, mild, winter day, we may discover green, spherical bushes on the bare branches of trees. In springtime these spherical green shapes gradually disappear in the growing green masses of tree leaves. During summertime it is difficult to see mistletoe, even if one knows exactly where they are located. They reappear in late fall, when our trees become yellow, red, brown, and then shed their leaves. When the first white berries appear, one knows that Christmas is near. It is almost as if the mistletoes were concealed in the treetops during the summer, and come out of hiding in the winter, showing us its green leaves and stems, white, ripe berries, and small yellowish flowers. Mistletoe is a wonderful and joyous sight for many people, but a nuisance for others because this semi-parasite damages trees.
Thus, our decorative parasite and tree spoiler arouses contradictory feelings in people. Mistletoe brings hope and happiness, but it also stirs up anxiety and worries. There is something strange about mistletoe that fascinates some people, yet it makes others feel uncomfortable.
Reproduction and Germination
Mistletoe’s ripe berries are eaten in winter by mistle thrushes and other birds. The thrushes swallow the berries whole. The undigested slimy seeds are excreted and if they fall on a branch they stick to it. Back caps (Sylvia atricapillae) eat the flesh of the berries in the spring and they wipe the seeds, which stick to their much smaller beaks, onto the nearest branch. These two types of birds spread mistletoe by distributing its seeds onto branches, whereas titmice eat some of the seeds and prevent the mistletoe from spreading too abundantly. When a mistletoe seed is glued to a branch, it germinates in the light and warmth around the end of March in our latitudes. The seedling bends over and forms an adherent disc on the bark of the host branch, and it then tries to penetrate the bark. If it is able to reach the wood and draw water from the tree, the seedling can develop into a plant.
Mistletoe grows very slowly. A new seedling is about five millimeters long by April or May, and it doesn’t grow further until the next spring when two tiny leaves form. By the third year the mistletoe may be a few centimeters in length. The first blossoms form when it is five to six years old. It takes fifteen to twenty years to attain its maximum development. At maturity the mistletoe is a spherical evergreen bush with a diameter of up to one meter.
Separate Sexes
A mistletoe plant is either male or female. One can recognize the female plant by its berries, which are green in the summer and autumn, becoming white and ripe just before Christmas. They hang on the bush until spring unless the birds them. Their blossoms are green and extremely small and difficult to see. The male plants never have berries, and they grow somewhat larger, yellowish-green primitive flowers without real petals, although they have anthers. The fertilization occurs via small insects. Bees sometimes gather pollen on mild sunny days during the main blossoming time in March and fertilize the female blossoms. People with sensitive noses can detect the delicate aroma of a blooming mistletoe. One can also distinguish the sexes by examining the plant tissues. Male and female tissues consist of different proteins, and the chromosomes of the male cells look different from the female ones. Even though the two sexes have very characteristic features and occur on separate bushes, one can sometimes find a mistletoe plant which has both female berries and male pollen, but this is only because a male mistletoe has germinated and grown on a female one, or vice versa. In this case one has a true marriage, which facilitates fertilization and reproduction.
Harvesting Mistletoe
We harvest mistletoe for the Iscador preparations twice a year, in June and in November/December. In Arlesheim (Switzerland), we extract the sap. The summer sap and the winter sap are then mixed in a special machine so that the medication contains sap from both the flowers and the berries as well as from all other parts of the plant.
Mistletoe is picked from the following six host trees: apple, oak, elm, poplar, pine, and fir. Separate preparations are made from the mistletoe from each of these sources. We gather the mistletoe in places where there is as little pollution as possible, mainly in France which has large stands of mistletoe. The harvesting method varies depending on the tree type. We can pick large quantities of mistletoe quickly when it is easily accessible as on apple trees, poplars, firs, and pines. The pickers wear clean gloves and put the mistletoe in sacks. Mistletoe seldom grows on oaks and elms. The height of these trees makes it more difficult to pick. Once harvested, it is important that the plants get to Arlesheim as quickly as possible so that they don’t spoil. Refrigerated cars are used for longer trips. The processors are waiting in our Hisca laboratory, and the preparation begins at once. The mistletoe plants are crushed with a roller and the active ingredients are extracted with water and fermented. The filtered extracts are then diluted and various metal salts are added to some of them. The elaboration and storage of the juices and the manufacture of the ampules are controlled with the most advanced methods in order to guarantee a uniform, high-quality product. The absence of bacterial and fungal contamination is particularly important, and the preparations are tested for this in our own bacteriological laboratory.
Going from mistletoe to the Iscador preparation is a long process which requires many hands and specialized machines before the many ampules can be sent to patients around the world.
The cultivation of Mistletoe
It is easy to cultivate some kinds of mistletoe. The black caps showed us the easiest way to do it. One takes a fresh, ripe berry and presses it on the branch where it is supposed to grow. The sticky seed sticks to the bark and one can throw the berry skin away. No incision or other treatment is necessary. Dry weather and sunny days in March/April dry the seed, and it begins to germinate. It is slow work to sow about one hundred seeds onto a tree, but since mistletoes grow very slowly, one has to be even more patient before one finds out whether they have all taken hold. It takes at least five to six years for a bush to reach one foot in diameter. Some of the seedlings perish before that time.
Mistletoe can often be found on apples, poplars, pines and firs, but they seldom grow on oaks and elms. Many sowing experiments over the years have confirmed that there are good and bad host plants for mistletoe. Many seedlings die on poor host plants. The tree’s inner constitution and predisposition seem to be important factors in the successful cultivation of mistletoe. It has become necessary to cultivate the mistletoes that grow on oaks and elms in order to keep up with the growing demand for their special activity. Here we select little trees which came from oaks and elms that have mistletoe growing on them. Only a small percentage of these descendants are receptive to mistletoe, and we multiply elms through root runners and oaks through grafts. We cultivate our hosts in nurseries and on plantations, and we have already harvested some mistletoe from our apples, poplars, and elms. Larger programs are underway to cultivate the oak mistletoe, which is still in short supply. Oaks grow slowly, need optimum soil, and need a great deal of care while they are young. We are hoping to grow enough to supplement the oak mistletoe we gather from nature.
Mistletoe in Art and Mythology
Mistletoe has a place in the arts as well as in research and medical practices. There was a mistletoe exhibition in Heidelberg in 1986 where one could admire hundreds of artistic paintings, vases, lamps, jewelry, bowls, plates, poems, and periodicals which all had the mistletoe as their motif.
Mistletoe is often mentioned in mythology. It is the key element in the Baldur saga in the younger Edda. Pliny the Elder reported on the great reverence of the Gallic Druids, and other Gallic peoples for mistletoes.
In their battle against cancer, modern scientists are placing mistletoe under the magnifying glass with clever technological methods. Their discoveries will show whether or not everything that mythology, art, and superstition ascribed to mistletoe is correct.
Text excerpt from
Anthroposophical Medicine and Therapies for Cancer
Hans-Richard Heiligtag, M.D. (editor)
Mercury Press, Spring Valley, NY
1990
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