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.
Fascinating to hear from your experience with it. This is a great comment. I’m going to pin this one to the top Incase it’s useful for others. Thank you!
Can you take it as a tinture or do you have to inject it? My son has recently been diagnosed with t cell cancer and would love to hear more about the research on mistletoe if you could maybe tell me where to look online , that would be very helpful.
For those fighting cancer, you need to look into the Ketogenic diet. It greatly reduces the amount of sugar in your blood that cancer cells thrive on. There are documented studies that prove it helps. Google it and make your own decisions.
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.
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.
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 UA-cam feed, from a channel I have never watched..... Kinda freaked me out.
It's scary that it's normal for things to pop up in your recommended if you have a conversation with someone about it and the all hearing phone eavesdrops on you, but it's really cool version of creepy when you just silently think it. Wild.
At times this happens to me as well. Kinda freaky to me as well. I’d be thinking of something also and it would pop up on my screen without me searching for it!
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😊
do you know mrs .dolores cannon she is a very inlighting person check her out on the web every body knows our dolores cannon she wrote 28 books i think you would like to know we all are connected check her out i think she will spark you life check her books out that is the spark
I love this story of your past, thank you for sharing it with us! And 'weird' is a matter of perspective.. many of the great minds and creators in art and science were and still are considered 'weird', but personally I'd rather be weird and think for myself then just be one of the mindless workers of the colony.
👍 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!
Hmm seems like you don’t understand the nature of my comment! Obviously I’m not against science! However most scientific research as far as medicine is concerned, is funded by big pharmaceutical companies and has very little incentive to be studying the benefits of things that the average person can get for free in their back yard. .
My favorite store sells dandelion greens when they're in season locally.🤔 I love living where I do because it has a strong sustainable agricultural community... And while it's still working on rectifying the narrative surrounding Native Americans, it has made many changes to better reflect the local history as it was, and not as it wishes it to be...long before it became "popular" which is actually pretty normal for where I live. Abolishing Slavery was done pretty early on, and it was a regular underground railroad route about 100 miles where a slave could travel in relative safety before reaching the border of Canada. Relative partly because it has always had a population largely out numbered by farm animals and trees. As well as long established paths and trail systems that are hard to supervise long term due to their quantity. If one is blocked you have at least 20 others to choose from...and with all of the streams and bodies of water scattered around, long term tracking is hard to accomplish on top.of the tumultuous weather patterns than can wash away scent within minutes. That's not to say it's paradise. Far from it. It has tons of issues. However, the State motto, Freedom & Unity certainly means that historically, the efforts made, largely reflect that motto. People complain about taxes, and how money is spent, but at the end of the day, people still vote to.support those same taxes and spending plans, because the money is spent in ways that promote personal freedom for the disadvantaged, which increases overall unity.
I find that toxins are just chemicals that can be utilized in way that can benefit you, the right dose can become a medicine or enough to prevent other things from harming you. Jimsom weed is notorious as a poisonous plant and a common weed but it is related and share similar chemicals to tobacco, its just that tobacco kills you a lot less slowly but still is incredibly poisonous and is used for smoking. I Find that with both, if you dry them out and make a "tea", you can spray the extract to make a potent inseticide, just be sure to wear PPE and to wash all vegetables/fruits you spray very well as the compounds in both jimson wed and tobacco can cause chemical burns/allergic reactions. For a much safer repellent rather than insecticide I suggest you make a "tea" with marigold flowers and leave, planting them along side other plants also help with detering pests.
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.
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.
Some more facts: there are actually many subspecies of Viscum album, each growing on a different species of tree. There is also a bird a Europe called Turdus viscivorium which means the "Turdus that eats the viscum" and it is actually the bird propagating the plant in nature.
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!
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.
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?
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!
Fun facts, here in Australia we have a huge range of parasitical plants and none of our large range of mistletoes have any toxicity and they all have edible fruits.
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.
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.
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.
Funny story. When I was a teen my youth group used to meet on Friday nights at Shoney's (a southern chain restaurant). It was Christmas time and my buddy had been absentmindedly fiddling with some mistletoe...crushing it, rubbing it together, etc as we sat around the table talking. So I suppose the mistletoe fragments were being ingested by him unknowingly as he ate his French fries. None of us thought anything about it. I doubt any of us kids even knew mistletoe was poisonous. He said that night he had terrifying hallucinations/nightmares/cold sweats. He still says that's one of the most terrifying experiences he's ever had. Fortunately nothing more serious than that happened.
@StoneAgeMan In the version I heard, Loki didn't take advantage of a loophole, rather, Frigg had literally gone to every plant on Earth and asked for and received promises from them all that they would not harm Balder, but somehow she missed mistletoe, and Loki, who had been spying on her doings, knew this. He made a single arrow of it, and while the gods were having fun shooting arrows at Balder, because they would veer away, Loki gave his special arrow to a blind god, and steadied his aim for him. Literally, insult to injury. I'm not sure where I learned that version; possibly Edith Hamilton's "Mythology."
Great video! I've seen plenty of mistletoe here in England on tall poplars but it loves apple trees best of all and unfortunately many of our orchards have disappeared and the mistletoe with them.
Semi/Parasitic plants are amazing! Do one on dodder, i recently bought a plant simply because it had a dodder vine growing on it, i just found it so fascinating because where i live it's pretty arid so you don't see it in native plants.
I used to climb the oak trees, sometimes from the church roof, and collect mistletoe as a holiday decoration. I visit family in Columbia, South Carolina, and last Christmas took a photo that is for me quintessential South Carolina character. There are palm trees there, and on one large palm growing under a large oak with mistletoe I found mistletoe growing in the palm tree, white berries and all.
Hello from the UK. Thank you for making this video about mistletoe. I live in an area where Viscum album is prolific and I too am a mistletoe enthusiast! Thanks for the info on the American Mistletoe. Very informative.
I got it from juniper trees in Central Oregon & used it for Christmas decor. I think it does infest already stressed out trees & contributes to the end of their life cycle. But I think properly caring for your own trees will keep it in check. Cool video.
I remember watching a video of yours years ago and looking around to notice just how common those are and even send in a photo. But your newer videos changed in their messages and display them more positively.
It's true. I learned a bit more about them. They're parasites for sure, but in the end, they're not terribly problematic to the tree (most aren't anyhow)
In my country certain species of mistletoe have a very expensive prices. Especially a dried mistletoe that came from very old tea tree. Herbal medicine companies would like to buy it as an ingredients of their products at any cost because it contains higher anti-cancer things.
@@betsywoolbright8059 Hi Betsy your right... I didnt see the icon at the time and ive been tired ..but as a dyslexic i do misread read items ..i normally recheck but typing on my phone makes things more difficult... my error. Though as with anything virtual nothing is guaranteed. 🧙♂️ Another common plant a weed/wild flower of paths that has been found useful in treating Childhood Leukemia is the Rosy Perriwinkle.🌺
I know Shulgin cites mistltoe as containing an as yet uncaracterised ethyltriptamine, and i cant remember where i saw a ref to it cureing childhood epilepsy
I’m really glad I decided to do some research before I removed the mistletoe from my trees. We have tons of it around and we’re worried about the bloom because of allergies. But now I’m thinking that the benefit may outweigh the risk. I will continue my research.
Very much appreciated! I ate a very tasty and sweet mistletoe berry in the wilderness a few years ago, and had exactly the same "Wow, sweet!" reaction. Not the least bitter. But the lore kept me from eating more of them. Until now!
Huh. very interesting! Being a 'Country Boy' I've had knowledge of a lot of nature in general but this is something very new to me. It also amazes me at times at how much we are effected by lore and myth from history. It's also amazing at how many things that's been considered 'witchcraft' and 'paganism(s)' are somewhat rooted in science even if they didn't know it. For as advanced as we think we are as a culture I feel like we might have forgotten more then we have learned.. Thank you kindly for sharing this information!
I am new to the channel. Have you done anything on nightshade? Here in New Mexico we have silver leaf nightshade. It has grayish green leaves with spines on the plant. It has small berries that start out green and gradually turn yellow till they darken and or dry out. It is toxic but has been used to treat many ailments in traditional native medicine. It is also known as horse nettle.
Grows all day on oaks out here in California...I always wondered why holly was assumed to be mistletoe.... mistletoe with is sticky balls makes all the sense why it was hung
Can you please make a video on Japanese Knotweed? Spring's coming 'round so it'll be perfect to eat the fresh shoots and you can make salve out of the roots anytime. We call it Creekweed here in WNC
I was a docent at Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Experimental Farm, which according to the USDA is the center of the outbreak of European Mistletoe in California. Burbank imported it here. Nobody knows why. But I have a theory. In Europe, it was hung up at winter fertility rites for girls to snack on the berries. Women who hung out under the mistletoe could get a lot more than just a kiss. They used it as birth control, as it contains progesterone, according to Dr. Gunn's book, "Natural Progesterone". This hormone prevents conception. So a woman could take on multiple guys, but not have to worry about who the father was. No wonder Christians hated Luther Burbank. His ad copy trumpeted "Burbank's latest creations", while Christians claimed, "only God can make a tree!" ... but Burbank also imported the first oral contraceptive to America.
I know a possible use that I know from medicine books (I'm from Austria). as a cold extract against menstrual pain. cold extract because the poison dissolves in warm water
The earlies version of Loki and Baldur is in a 11th century manuscript that is usually referred to as the Poetic Edda and the particular part you are referencing is called Baldur's Dream.
here in Philippines we boiled the whole bunch the leaf and the stem and branch where it was attached, the boiled water is use to mix coffee or any beverage...
I watched a video in the past few months about mistletoe, it’s from Jon Solo. He researched the history of the tradition of kissing under mistletoe, if anyone is interested in that aspect.
About the norse-story: Balder was the most liked of all norse gods, but when a prohpecy appeared and told the gods about his death, his mother, Frigg, wanted to do something about it. So Frigg traveled around the entire world, talking to everything: plants, rocks, metals, rain and everything else in existence. She forced all things to swear an oath never to hurt Baldur, and she convinced all of them. But there was a single plant in the world she didn't ask: "The mistletoe". This was because that plant was the newest and youngest plant in the world and it was too innocent to hurt anyone. Loki, the trickster he is, heard of this mistake made an arrow out of mistletoe in secret. When all of the gods where gathered together celebrating Balder's newfound immortality, they started a game where they threw spears, axes, swords and all manner of dangers at Balder, but because of their promises nothing could put a scratch on Balder and the gods were having the time of their life partying. Then in the midst of this, Loki noticed that one of the gods where not participating, the only blind person in the room. Loki then gave his mistletoe arrow and a bow to the blind man and convinced him to shoot the arrow at Balder, he even helped him to aim the bow. The arrow pierced Baldur and killed him. -After some kerfuffle- Baldurs' mother Frigg tried to convince the goddess of death "Hel" to allow Balder to return to life and she allowed it only if every person and "thing" in the world wept for him. And everything in the world did, except Loki. Because of that, Baldur never returned to the world of the living and was forced to stay in the realm of the dead. (until after the apocalypses: Ragnarök, where Balder was resurrected and became the sole god to rule the new world)
Mistletoe also called 'the kiss of death', so named because of the way it is attached to the host tree and because of the toxic variety in region where it got named 'Mistletoe'.
Super interesting. Like most, I always heard it was toxic and killed trees but didn't care as a kid because we picked it and sold it for pocket money at Christmas. Lol
wauw such a cool video! i have used the european mistletoe in a tea to inhance my imunity. alto i heard that hte magical drink from astrix and obelix is made with misstletoe, i had been inspired of stories of the druids who thought the plant has magical properties, they harvested it only from oak trees with a golden cicle.
It doesn't really like Oak that much (at least the European kind doesn't) it grows in apple trees, lime, hawthorn, poplar, and willow. OTOH American mistletoe grows on many trees including oak as far as I can tell. desert mistletoe grows on mesquite, palo verde, ironwood, and desert buckthorn.
Here in Delaware I was always curious about the green clumps in bare winter trees. I was so surprised to learn it was mistletoe! I would love to have some in my maple tree, but there's no where to get the sticky seeds. Online it's billed as " poisonous".... can anyone help me with this??
I was told it was this yellow-orange fungal looking thing that grows on pine trees. I was always scared to walk under them as a kid. (Something about them growing on me like the cortaceps in last of us) The parasitic wasps still freak me out a bit too!
20+ years of cleaning high desert pine forests, I still avoid walking under mistletoe limbs. That isn't some nice mutualistic plant. It is essentially forcing the infected tissue to grow in unnatural and weak ways. Overriding the phototropic and self limbing behavior of pine trees. Look up Dwarf Mistletoe.
Mistletoe grows in Arizona. There are a few neighborhoods where you can see on many of the trees. I wish now that I could climb up and pick some of it.
Its cool stuff, I get the pleasure of seeing it in its natural environment up close being a climbing arborist. Never in my home town tho but abundant in a neighbouring town 🤔
Very interesting. When I lived in Indonesia, I found a parasitic growth they called "benalu" on one of my trees. Knowing nothing about it or what it actually did, I removed it so it didn't harm my tree. It turns out that it was either from the genus Loranthus or Dendrophthoe, possibly Loranthus pentandrus ("benalu") or Dendrophthoe pentandra ("kemladean"). I doubt the person who called it benalu actually knew which it was, but both are apparently in the mistletoe family.
Interesting. Often horrible for the scrub oak and live oak trees in dry Socal, though. The mistletoe will keep going and going until the last leaves on the evergreen trees are those of the parasite.
If mistletoe is allowed to proliferate unchecked on a tree, it will eventually kill the tree. A neighbour of mine had an apple tree that had so much mistletoe, that in the spring and summer, it was nearly impossible to see the natural leaves of the tree. It died. The same has happened to her pear tree. These were both large mature trees. In a way, I'm glad they are now dead, because they were a constant pest, due to birds carrying the seeds to my adjacent fruit trees. This meant continuous work for me to eliminate the infections. Now, with luck, I can eliminate it from my trees without constant reintroduction, every year. .
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.
Fascinating to hear from your experience with it. This is a great comment. I’m going to pin this one to the top Incase it’s useful for others. Thank you!
* subcutaneously
Can you take it as a tinture or do you have to inject it? My son has recently been diagnosed with t cell cancer and would love to hear more about the research on mistletoe if you could maybe tell me where to look online , that would be very helpful.
For those fighting cancer, you need to look into the Ketogenic diet. It greatly reduces the amount of sugar in your blood that cancer cells thrive on. There are documented studies that prove it helps. Google it and make your own decisions.
Subconsciously???
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.
A different kind of parasite, the tax collectors!
🤣🤣🤣
Haaaaaaa 😂😂😂
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.
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 UA-cam feed, from a channel I have never watched.....
Kinda freaked me out.
It's scary that it's normal for things to pop up in your recommended if you have a conversation with someone about it and the all hearing phone eavesdrops on you, but it's really cool version of creepy when you just silently think it. Wild.
I had been remembering seeing mistletoe this morning and this popped into my feed. Maybe it is magic.
At times this happens to me as well. Kinda freaky to me as well. I’d be thinking of something also and it would pop up on my screen without me searching for it!
The government is scanning us 😉🙃🤣 happens to my family and I quite often, it is very odd.
Algorithms are better and better.
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😊
Haha great "missile-toes" anecdote! Missile-toes and bullet-fingers!
do you know mrs .dolores cannon she is a very inlighting person check her out on the web every body knows our dolores cannon she wrote 28 books i think you would like to know we all are connected check her out i think she will spark you life check her books out that is the spark
I love this story of your past, thank you for sharing it with us! And 'weird' is a matter of perspective.. many of the great minds and creators in art and science were and still are considered 'weird', but personally I'd rather be weird and think for myself then just be one of the mindless workers of the colony.
@@korgan7779 thanks a lot❣️ I know weird can be good. Why be the run of the mill person.
@@janetross1900 Absolutely!
👍 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!
Yes its always been there too. Almost saying, come on find out about me. So I do👍
Hmm seems like you don’t understand the nature of my comment! Obviously I’m not against science! However most scientific research as far as medicine is concerned, is funded by big pharmaceutical companies and has very little incentive to be studying the benefits of things that the average person can get for free in their back yard. .
My favorite store sells dandelion greens when they're in season locally.🤔
I love living where I do because it has a strong sustainable agricultural community... And while it's still working on rectifying the narrative surrounding Native Americans, it has made many changes to better reflect the local history as it was, and not as it wishes it to be...long before it became "popular" which is actually pretty normal for where I live.
Abolishing Slavery was done pretty early on, and it was a regular underground railroad route about 100 miles where a slave could travel in relative safety before reaching the border of Canada.
Relative partly because it has always had a population largely out numbered by farm animals and trees.
As well as long established paths and trail systems that are hard to supervise long term due to their quantity. If one is blocked you have at least 20 others to choose from...and with all of the streams and bodies of water scattered around, long term tracking is hard to accomplish on top.of the tumultuous weather patterns than can wash away scent within minutes.
That's not to say it's paradise.
Far from it.
It has tons of issues.
However, the State motto, Freedom & Unity certainly means that historically, the efforts made, largely reflect that motto.
People complain about taxes, and how money is spent, but at the end of the day, people still vote to.support those same taxes and spending plans, because the money is spent in ways that promote personal freedom for the disadvantaged, which increases overall unity.
I find that toxins are just chemicals that can be utilized in way that can benefit you, the right dose can become a medicine or enough to prevent other things from harming you.
Jimsom weed is notorious as a poisonous plant and a common weed but it is related and share similar chemicals to tobacco, its just that tobacco kills you a lot less slowly but still is incredibly poisonous and is used for smoking. I Find that with both, if you dry them out and make a "tea", you can spray the extract to make a potent inseticide, just be sure to wear PPE and to wash all vegetables/fruits you spray very well as the compounds in both jimson wed and tobacco can cause chemical burns/allergic reactions. For a much safer repellent rather than insecticide I suggest you make a "tea" with marigold flowers and leave, planting them along side other plants also help with detering pests.
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.
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.
Some more facts: there are actually many subspecies of Viscum album, each growing on a different species of tree. There is also a bird a Europe called Turdus viscivorium which means the "Turdus that eats the viscum" and it is actually the bird propagating the plant in nature.
Ty
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!
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.
Ty for this correction loved it
Ok so thats all you picked up in all of this video?
@@seansullivan7928 Yeah, I don't think I missed anything. I enjoyed the rest.
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.
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?
All I know, is that mistletoe was one of the most revered medicinal plant for millennia in Europe.
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!
Fun facts, here in Australia we have a huge range of parasitical plants and none of our large range of mistletoes have any toxicity and they all have edible fruits.
🤔👍
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.
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.
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.
Great video. If you are in the South consider doing Greenbriar/Bullbriar (Smilax), sometimes called wild asparagus, as a useful plant
Mistletoe is so neat, down in Arizona the birds just love them
I love learning about the origins of traditions like this. Your research and style of teaching is awesome. Great video Rob, thank you.
Thank you Joe!
Freaking super cool. Nice video
Thanks EJ - Remember to eat those mistletoe on desert islands!
Every bit of this presentation was full of new information! I'm so glad I tapped on it to watch!
Once again very useful information, not commonly known and delivered insightfully and succinctly. Thank you sir glad that I subscribed
Its used to regulate blood pressure here in central Europe
I can tell you its tea banished my throbbing headache lickety split.
Always very interesting. Appreciate the content.
Funny story. When I was a teen my youth group used to meet on Friday nights at Shoney's (a southern chain restaurant). It was Christmas time and my buddy had been absentmindedly fiddling with some mistletoe...crushing it, rubbing it together, etc as we sat around the table talking. So I suppose the mistletoe fragments were being ingested by him unknowingly as he ate his French fries. None of us thought anything about it. I doubt any of us kids even knew mistletoe was poisonous. He said that night he had terrifying hallucinations/nightmares/cold sweats. He still says that's one of the most terrifying experiences he's ever had. Fortunately nothing more serious than that happened.
@StoneAgeMan In the version I heard, Loki didn't take advantage of a loophole, rather, Frigg had literally gone to every plant on Earth and asked for and received promises from them all that they would not harm Balder, but somehow she missed mistletoe, and Loki, who had been spying on her doings, knew this. He made a single arrow of it, and while the gods were having fun shooting arrows at Balder, because they would veer away, Loki gave his special arrow to a blind god, and steadied his aim for him. Literally, insult to injury. I'm not sure where I learned that version; possibly Edith Hamilton's "Mythology."
Great video! I've seen plenty of mistletoe here in England on tall poplars but it loves apple trees best of all and unfortunately many of our orchards have disappeared and the mistletoe with them.
It was prolly the mistletoe suffocating ur trees
@@codywhite8358 sadly, it's development related. Orchard owners sell them off when they're worth more for housing than the apples they can sell.
Props for Dr. Dave, who seems to know a heckofa lot!
Thanks!
Met Dr. Dave searching for mistletoe on sandalwood trees on Hamelin station last year at Shark Bay.
Great knowing they are edible.
That was great. Love your work. Learned something new today. Thank you.
I love learning new stuff about nature. Thanks man👍🌿
Semi/Parasitic plants are amazing! Do one on dodder, i recently bought a plant simply because it had a dodder vine growing on it, i just found it so fascinating because where i live it's pretty arid so you don't see it in native plants.
I used to climb the oak trees, sometimes from the church roof, and collect mistletoe as a holiday decoration. I visit family in Columbia, South Carolina, and last Christmas took a photo that is for me quintessential South Carolina character. There are palm trees there, and on one large palm growing under a large oak with mistletoe I found mistletoe growing in the palm tree, white berries and all.
Food is my medicine. Love going out looking for plants to eat
Hello from the UK. Thank you for making this video about mistletoe. I live in an area where Viscum album is prolific and I too am a mistletoe enthusiast! Thanks for the info on the American Mistletoe. Very informative.
I got it from juniper trees in Central Oregon & used it for Christmas decor. I think it does infest already stressed out trees & contributes to the end of their life cycle. But I think properly caring for your own trees will keep it in check. Cool video.
I remember watching a video of yours years ago and looking around to notice just how common those are and even send in a photo. But your newer videos changed in their messages and display them more positively.
It's true. I learned a bit more about them. They're parasites for sure, but in the end, they're not terribly problematic to the tree (most aren't anyhow)
In my country certain species of mistletoe have a very expensive prices. Especially a dried mistletoe that came from very old tea tree. Herbal medicine companies would like to buy it as an ingredients of their products at any cost because it contains higher anti-cancer things.
Good info which country ?
@@zeez9053
Look at the name and the fact she mentions Tea trees.. I would say she is first nations Australian.😉
@@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665 her username is a Japanese name.
@@betsywoolbright8059
Hi Betsy your right... I didnt see the icon at the time and ive been tired ..but as a dyslexic i do misread read items ..i normally recheck but typing on my phone makes things more difficult... my error.
Though as with anything virtual nothing is guaranteed. 🧙♂️
Another common plant a weed/wild flower of paths that has been found useful in treating Childhood Leukemia is the Rosy Perriwinkle.🌺
I know Shulgin cites mistltoe as containing an as yet uncaracterised ethyltriptamine, and i cant remember where i saw a ref to it cureing childhood epilepsy
I’m really glad I decided to do some research before I removed the mistletoe from my trees. We have tons of it around and we’re worried about the bloom because of allergies. But now I’m thinking that the benefit may outweigh the risk. I will continue my research.
Thank you for sharing
Thanks! Super interesting
Knees over mistletoe guy was pretty knowledgeable
This was fascinating, thank you!
Do mistletoe share their carbohydrates with their host while they are leafless?
Very much appreciated! I ate a very tasty and sweet mistletoe berry in the wilderness a few years ago, and had exactly the same "Wow, sweet!" reaction. Not the least bitter. But the lore kept me from eating more of them. Until now!
almost on the same subject could you do a video on cherry berry ? used in chinese medecine but impossible to get... Many thanks
Mistletoe was harvested alot by the Druids in the UK
Nope.
I'm teaching Kindergarten. My 5yr old is learning about Mistletoe for Nature Studies. I'm learning more out of this video 😊
Huh. very interesting! Being a 'Country Boy' I've had knowledge of a lot of nature in general but this is something very new to me. It also amazes me at times at how much we are effected by lore and myth from history. It's also amazing at how many things that's been considered 'witchcraft' and 'paganism(s)' are somewhat rooted in science even if they didn't know it. For as advanced as we think we are as a culture I feel like we might have forgotten more then we have learned..
Thank you kindly for sharing this information!
Nice vid. Thank you for sharing.
I am new to the channel. Have you done anything on nightshade? Here in New Mexico we have silver leaf nightshade. It has grayish green leaves with spines on the plant. It has small berries that start out green and gradually turn yellow till they darken and or dry out. It is toxic but has been used to treat many ailments in traditional native medicine. It is also known as horse nettle.
Not yet.
Anti- cancer properties of mistletoe were used to create medicines Iscador and Helixor.
I used one called Fraxini. It’s from oak trees.
@@gardencompost259 It's very interesting. How do you take Fraxini? Iscador and Helixor are injected, not digested.
Grows all day on oaks out here in California...I always wondered why holly was assumed to be mistletoe.... mistletoe with is sticky balls makes all the sense why it was hung
Great stuff Rob, I'm going to be on the lookout for it in my neck of the woods. Thanks 👍
Can you please make a video on Japanese Knotweed? Spring's coming 'round so it'll be perfect to eat the fresh shoots and you can make salve out of the roots anytime.
We call it Creekweed here in WNC
I was a docent at Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Experimental Farm, which according to the USDA is the center of the outbreak of European Mistletoe in California. Burbank imported it here. Nobody knows why.
But I have a theory. In Europe, it was hung up at winter fertility rites for girls to snack on the berries. Women who hung out under the mistletoe could get a lot more than just a kiss. They used it as birth control, as it contains progesterone, according to Dr. Gunn's book, "Natural Progesterone". This hormone prevents conception. So a woman could take on multiple guys, but not have to worry about who the father was.
No wonder Christians hated Luther Burbank. His ad copy trumpeted "Burbank's latest creations", while Christians claimed, "only God can make a tree!"
... but Burbank also imported the first oral contraceptive to America.
Thanks for your time Dave
Nobody has ever believed Holly was Mistletoe.
I know a possible use that I know from medicine books (I'm from Austria).
as a cold extract against menstrual pain.
cold extract because the poison dissolves in warm water
Fascinating info!
The earlies version of Loki and Baldur is in a 11th century manuscript that is usually referred to as the Poetic Edda and the particular part you are referencing is called Baldur's Dream.
Does the mistletoe benefit or give back to the tree?
I knew this was being researched for anti-cancer properties but didnt know I could eat the berries. Nice!
Do you have any other episodes about parasitic plants?? So cool!
Working on it!
In Australia there is a mistletoe tree that doesn't grow roots it latches on to the roots of surrounding plants.
here in Philippines we boiled the whole bunch the leaf and the stem and branch where it was attached, the boiled water is use to mix coffee or any beverage...
I watched a video in the past few months about mistletoe, it’s from Jon Solo. He researched the history of the tradition of kissing under mistletoe, if anyone is interested in that aspect.
About the norse-story: Balder was the most liked of all norse gods, but when a prohpecy appeared and told the gods about his death, his mother, Frigg, wanted to do something about it. So Frigg traveled around the entire world, talking to everything: plants, rocks, metals, rain and everything else in existence. She forced all things to swear an oath never to hurt Baldur, and she convinced all of them. But there was a single plant in the world she didn't ask: "The mistletoe". This was because that plant was the newest and youngest plant in the world and it was too innocent to hurt anyone.
Loki, the trickster he is, heard of this mistake made an arrow out of mistletoe in secret. When all of the gods where gathered together celebrating Balder's newfound immortality, they started a game where they threw spears, axes, swords and all manner of dangers at Balder, but because of their promises nothing could put a scratch on Balder and the gods were having the time of their life partying. Then in the midst of this, Loki noticed that one of the gods where not participating, the only blind person in the room. Loki then gave his mistletoe arrow and a bow to the blind man and convinced him to shoot the arrow at Balder, he even helped him to aim the bow. The arrow pierced Baldur and killed him.
-After some kerfuffle-
Baldurs' mother Frigg tried to convince the goddess of death "Hel" to allow Balder to return to life and she allowed it only if every person and "thing" in the world wept for him. And everything in the world did, except Loki. Because of that, Baldur never returned to the world of the living and was forced to stay in the realm of the dead. (until after the apocalypses: Ragnarök, where Balder was resurrected and became the sole god to rule the new world)
Mistletoe also called 'the kiss of death', so named because of the way it is attached to the host tree and because of the toxic variety in region where it got named 'Mistletoe'.
Super interesting. Like most, I always heard it was toxic and killed trees but didn't care as a kid because we picked it and sold it for pocket money at Christmas. Lol
PS: I mostly see it in native So California Western Sycamore Trees here.
In Croatia they make brandy with mistletoe extract.
I've heard that. Have you ever tried it?
@@UntamedScience Yes i have. It has a Jägermeister-like taste, but quite a bit milder. I liked it ok. :)
wauw such a cool video! i have used the european mistletoe in a tea to inhance my imunity. alto i heard that hte magical drink from astrix and obelix is made with misstletoe, i had been inspired of stories of the druids who thought the plant has magical properties, they harvested it only from oak trees with a golden cicle.
Awesome!
Is Mistletoe exclusive to growing on Oak trees? Can it grow on other species of trees?
It doesn't really like Oak that much (at least the European kind doesn't) it grows in apple trees, lime, hawthorn, poplar, and willow. OTOH American mistletoe grows on many trees including oak as far as I can tell. desert mistletoe grows on mesquite, palo verde, ironwood, and desert buckthorn.
@@CarolineFarrow thank you very much
great topic & video
Here in Delaware I was always curious about the green clumps in bare winter trees. I was so surprised to learn it was mistletoe! I would love to have some in my maple tree, but there's no where to get the sticky seeds. Online it's billed as " poisonous".... can anyone help me with this??
We have a Christmas tradition in our family every year I take a .22 rifle shoot mistletoe from one of the oak trees in our yard
I was told it was this yellow-orange fungal looking thing that grows on pine trees. I was always scared to walk under them as a kid. (Something about them growing on me like the cortaceps in last of us) The parasitic wasps still freak me out a bit too!
20+ years of cleaning high desert pine forests, I still avoid walking under mistletoe limbs. That isn't some nice mutualistic plant. It is essentially forcing the infected tissue to grow in unnatural and weak ways. Overriding the phototropic and self limbing behavior of pine trees.
Look up Dwarf Mistletoe.
@@komrade223 yah . . . That would be the $#*+ I've seen alright!
LOL $20 if you lick one! . . .
Very interesting. Thanks!
You should make a video about daylilies.
Mistletoe grows in Arizona. There are a few neighborhoods where you can see on many of the trees. I wish now that I could climb up and pick some of it.
bright red flowers here in Nz at christmas time!
I'm so curious how the mistletoe gets to it's "in the air location" in the first place?? Interesting stuff. Thanks for the information.
Birds !
We need like 3 more videos on this!
Its cool stuff, I get the pleasure of seeing it in its natural environment up close being a climbing arborist. Never in my home town tho but abundant in a neighbouring town 🤔
is it a good idea to develop Mistletoe picking or harvesting drones?
Very interesting. When I lived in Indonesia, I found a parasitic growth they called "benalu" on one of my trees. Knowing nothing about it or what it actually did, I removed it so it didn't harm my tree. It turns out that it was either from the genus Loranthus or Dendrophthoe, possibly Loranthus pentandrus ("benalu") or Dendrophthoe pentandra ("kemladean"). I doubt the person who called it benalu actually knew which it was, but both are apparently in the mistletoe family.
I get mistletoe ointment that has properties that seem to heal my skin issues very fast
Fascinating. How often do you use it?
Thanks. Good video.
Interesting. Often horrible for the scrub oak and live oak trees in dry Socal, though. The mistletoe will keep going and going until the last leaves on the evergreen trees are those of the parasite.
If mistletoe is allowed to proliferate unchecked on a tree, it will eventually kill the tree.
A neighbour of mine had an apple tree that had so much mistletoe, that in the spring and summer, it was nearly impossible to see the natural leaves of the tree.
It died.
The same has happened to her pear tree. These were both large mature trees.
In a way, I'm glad they are now dead, because they were a constant pest, due to birds carrying the seeds to my adjacent fruit trees. This meant continuous work for me to eliminate the infections.
Now, with luck, I can eliminate it from my trees without constant reintroduction, every year.
.
at my local Walmart i see it growing to more and more trees each year.
video on elderflower and berries. ? 🧐🇬🇧🥇👍
One time I just tried some mistletoe barries and like they were good and gummy and sweet
My mistletoe fact: the name is of Saxon origin and means "excrement on a twig" as that's how the seeds get distributed naturally - in bird mess.
Great vid
I’m curious about missltoes that infect pine trees, a leaf on a pine tree?