Solving the mistletoe mystery

DOES mistletoe grow in Ireland? A simple question but one with a rather complicated answer.

It does but it’s very rare and almost certainly not native. It has been recorded from about a dozen sites, but several of these are old gardens. In Victorian and Edwardian times trying to grow mistletoe, which is difficult but not impossible, was quite a popular pastime and the Irish records for the plant are probably the result of this and the seed used was probably imported from Britain, where it is native.

Mistletoe is a parasite and parasites are rare in the plant kingdom. One source states that plant parasites have only evolved nine times in the whole world. To be absolutely precise it’s a hemi-parasite — although it sucks water and nutrients from the host plant it’s not totally dependent on these and its own evergreen leaves do photosynthesise and provide part of its requirements.