The Mythical Mistletoe - The Toxins Could Save Your Life!

Mistletoe was considered a magical plant for ages. Science shows today that it has healing potential. Plus, it's a great Christmas plant with some fun traditions. As an ecologist though, I also see its role in the community as one of the most amazing things.

▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

0:00 - Common Christmas Mistletoe Mistake
0:20 - Mistletoe Introduction
1:48 - What is a Mistletoe
2:51 - Mistletoe Toxins
4:01 - Norse Legends
5:08 - Medicines from Mistletoe
6:27 - Is mistletoe Bad?
7:15 - How to get rid of Mistletoe
7:38 - Mistletoe Cross-section
8:31 - How to Plant Your Own Mistletoe
9:28 - Wrap



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[gardencompost]

Oh man, this is so cool. Thank you for this video. So-, I have prostate cancer. In combination with conventional treatment, through a functional care provider, I’ve used mistletoe extract. How this works is I would order the extract from Germany. It would be ordered in different strengths. The starting with the lowest strength, I would subconsciously inject 1 ml. The reaction was that of a mild flu, chills, fever, and dizziness, from about 1-2 hours. I would do this every other day, till no reactions, then up the dose. Then when my body got used to it, at the doctors office have an infusion of sodium ascorbate, and mistletoe extract. This program is used in Europe a lot. The coolest blood marker is raised levels of white blood cells, leukocytes. I don’t think it did much against the cancer, but how I felt was noticeable, quality of life improved.
On investigation I found that ancient Europeans used mistletoe for many treatments, and remedies. Fascinating stuff.

[michaelconway]

There is a big clump on our oak tree directly above the mailbox. You would think that mistletoe, with it's 'kissy-kissy' reputation, would have some magical effect. But no; we still get bills in the mail.

[LRM]

we had real mistletoe. I hung it from a ceiling light. forgot about for years. that light fixture did not have any bugs in it while the other 2 did. It repels bugs and spiders. who knew.

[janetross]

I live near Chicago and and when I was little, my parents would take us to see the special Christmas displays for kids at Marshall Fields and this is where we saw Santa to let him know what we wanted for Christmas. In their Christmas scenes they had little “people” (not live), and one was named Mr. Mistletoe. I was born in 1953 and as a young child, growing up during the Cold War and also not knowing what mistletoe was, I thought his character had little missiles for toes! I thought this was pretty strange but my Dad set me straight about it. It was also the first time I saw artificial snowflakes scattered around the display and picking them up and looking at them, I thought they were pretty weird. But then, back in those days, I was a pretty weird kid! I am 68 years old and I still remember the so vividly and I am still pretty weird😊

[greglaroche]

Interesting video. I learned a lot. I live in France and have a herd of fifty goats. There is also a lot of mistletoe around and they often eat it and it doesn’t seem to effect them negatively. Granted, goats are not humans.

[Ecotasia]

Mistletoe is so neat, down in Arizona the birds just love them

[rule]

In my shire Mistletoe is absolutely everywhere, lots of old orchards and woodland, most of what you buy at Christmas comes from us or the next shire.

[naturewithandy]

👍 there’s so much in nature that deserves way more attention than they get from the scientific community. So many organisms that are labeled with terms like weed, poisonous, parasite, etc, give them a bad reputation, when there’s so much they can teach us!

[ianstradian]

So I went for a walk in my local forest this morning at dawn, I watched the sunrise and listened to the world wake up, it was beautiful.
But, I saw mistletoe I the trees and thoughts needed to look up a video about it when I had time...
The spooky thing is, , , I never mentioned this out loud and this afternoon this video pops up in my YouTube feed, from a channel I have never
Kinda freaked me out.

[karinmeyer]

Thank you for your contribution. I didn't know that misteltoe berries can be eaten by humnas !
In Morokko, in the biotope of the cedar forest of Cedrus atlanticus we have misteltoe with red berries! It is Viscum crusciatum and grows mostly on hawthorn. And in this biotope we have also the nice holly. So I have everything to decorate traditionally for the end of the year. I confirm that too much mistletoe dries out the host!

[rosseryn]

I live in TX. I started to question the mistletoe paradigm when I realized that our goats were climbing up in the trees and eating every bit of they could get to. Which was quite a bit until they got it.
They loved it. Also the birds seemed to like it a lot.

[TealStarSusan]

Wow! Great info - I’m a Brit and have used mistletoe forever at Christmas. It’s often sold in bunches in greengrocers at that time. (From France I believe?) My husband is Scottish and we moved there in 1987, and despite being told that mistletoe was very difficult to grow due to the fruits having to be really fresh, I decided to have a go. I rubbed several on the bark of my newly planted apple trees…and waited! A year or so later I saw a tiny ‘prickle’ of green growing from one tree. At first I wasn’t sure what it was..but a few weeks later I checked it and yes! It was mistletoe! It grew into a ball around a foot across and I’d snip small lengths off for Christmas. One year a severe frost killed it - or so I thought. It took time but it grew back to its former glory! I’ve read that it’s male or female.. and mine might have been male as unfortunately it never fruited 😢 But it was definitely a talking point for the garden! I’d like to grow some again but live in Portugal now (I had to leave my poor mistletoe to it’s new house owner when we retired out her 😭) and it’s not used at Christmas and virtually unheard of so can’t buy fresh fruit to use for new plants! Perhaps one day….
And on another tack - thank you for telling me exactly WHY Americans often call Holly…mistletoe! I’d noticed the mistake in the crafting world - stamping etc and couldn’t understand why folk were calling prickly, red berried holly..mistletoe!

Btw, you know that mistletoe was I believe sacred to the Druids and was cut by the priests with a golden sickle! There is a book called The Golden Bough!

[NolanTyrrell]

West Australian Christmas bush grows on the roots of other trees. Australia has 90 species of mistletoe and the root ball is great for turning. The two woods look good together along with the grain structure.

[yossarianreborn]

All I know, is that mistletoe was one of the most revered medicinal plant for millennia in Europe.

[bforman]

So, I've always heard European mistletoe has anticoagulant properties, which was why the tiny mistletoe dart was able to cause Baldur's death by blood loss. Also heard it was incorporated into Excalibur's scabbard for an additional advantage. Also that it was used as an abortifactant by precipitating menstruation.
So. Does it have anticoagulant properties?

[GeckoAccount]

Interesting video. Although the norse legend referenced is incorrect. Loki is not a son of Odin, adoptive or otherwise. Loki is as old or older than Odin. He also swore a blood oath with Odin to become his blood brother in the past. But most of the other gods didn't like him. Odin's sons were the same. So Loki got a little cranky that the sons of his old friend didn't respect him. So cranky in fact that he fashioned an arrow from a mistletoe and tricked one of Odin's blind sons, to shoot Balder, the most popular of his kids, with the arrow. Which killed Balder. Loki is later found drinking, and while drunk mistakenly brags about it, which leads Odin to killing Loki's two sons, and using their innards to forge magical chains and using those chains, imprisons Loki in Niflheim. Where he is imprisoned, caustic poison drops towards him. Loki's wife pleads to be able to be by his side, out of respect towards Odin and Loki's former friendship. Odin Agrees. So, the wife stands beside Loki, using an urn, the wife would shield her husband's face and let the poison drip into that urn instead. However, eventually the urn will be full and would have to be emptied. So when she turned around to empty it, the poison would drop into Loki's face instead. The pain makes him twist and turn, stomping and shaking, roaring from the pain. This is the norse explanation of why there's earthquakes.

[kellyoneal]

Great video. If you are in the South consider doing Greenbriar/Bullbriar (Smilax), sometimes called wild asparagus, as a useful plant

[gavinbolton]

Here are some facts I know!. There are actually two species of mistletoe in North America. The species you did not describe looks nothing like Phoradendron leucarpum it is much much smaller and lacks chlorophyll. Also there is some evidence that the mistletoe’s relationship is more mutualistic than previously thought. Lastly is seems that in a particular area mistletoes will only be found on one type of tree like one species of oak, but can still be found in other areas on different species. This might indicate genetic diversity despite only one recognized species.

[olgierdogden]

I’ve eaten Mistletoe in England but not the seeds and yes it’s sweet but I found it difficult to swallow due to the stickiness of the fruit which just gets stuck as you swallow it.

[kristijanleitinger]

Its used to regulate blood pressure here in central Europe