Germinating Mistletoe

Germinating Mistletoe

We decided it would be interesting to try and grow some mistletoe at school, and as our Head Teacher had successfully cultivated some from seed at his home he helped us with the process.  February and March also happen to the best months for doing this.

Before we implanted the seeds, we decided to find out a bit more about this plant.  Mistletoe, Viscum album, is an evergreen plant and bears lots of cloudy white berries from winter to spring as well, which will help the wildlife in the grounds during the cold months.  If the mistletoe doesn’t produce berries, but flowers instead then it is probably masculine.  We also found out that mistletoe is semi-parasitic and lives on the water and nutrients from a host tree.  We thought that mistletoe would kill the host tree, but apparently it does not.  By introducing mistletoe to our grounds, we will be increasing biodiversity.

According to data from the National Mistletoe Survey cultivated apple trees are the favourite host for mistletoe, followed by lime and hawthorn – all of which we have at Wicor Primary School.  We also learnt that gardens are the favourite place for mistletoe to grow as there is more light than in woodland. 

From this information, we decided that our orchard, which has 15 heritage apple trees in and three lime trees would be the perfect place to cultivate mistletoe.  So on a dull, grey and wet February Friday we went to the orchard with Mr Wildman, our Head Teacher, with mistletoe berries from his garden.  He told us that we needed to rub the white berries onto the exact part of the tree where you want it to grow.  We thought that you might have to make a cut to rub the berries into, but according to Mr Wildman, it will stay where you rub it, as the inside of the berry is very sticky and it sticks to the healthy bark surface.  We thought it was really clever that birds help with the dispersal of mistletoe seeds because they get stuck to their bills. 

When the birds wipe their bills on tree branches, to remove the sticky substances, they are dispersing the seeds.  Blackcaps, Sylvia atricapilla, are really good at this and they are visiting the south of England even more these days which will mean more mistletoe!

Our research also told us that these berries are loved by birds including mistle thrushes Turdus viscivorus, redwings Turdus iliacus, waxwings Bombycilla garrulus and fieldfares Turdus pilaris.  Unfortunately, mistle thrushes are not very good at helping with the seed dispersal of mistletoe as they eat the berry whole and excrete the seeds missing the branches!  Mistletoe is also a really good habitat as well as a food sources: the mistletoe marble moth uses the leaves as a place to lay its larvae, and is a priority species.

 We will be keeping an eye on these seeds and hope to see if they have germinated later in the season.

The photo opposite shows a mistletoe seed just as it germinates.