The dependent insect fauna of our mistletoe, Viscum album, gradually changes with time. The mistletoe-dependent weevil Ixapion variegatum was unknown in Britain until 2000, and the mistletoe sap-sucker Hypseloecus visci unknown here until 2003. And there many other insects that use mistletoe, as well as those specialists. These broader species also change with time and one, an invasive species of fruitfly, has come in for special attention recently. Studies have shown how widespread it now […]
auctions , Biodiversity , Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Food and Drink , Gardening , Mistletoe , Mistletoe Day , Orchard , Religion , social history , Tenbury Wells
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Mistletoe in Parliament
A recent query (in connection with this) about how we got Parliament’s approval for National Mistletoe Day in 2005, and a subsequent search for the relevant references, got me looking at mistletoe in parliament in general. Does it get mentioned often? And in what sort of context? The answer to ‘how often’ is ‘not very’. But the answer to type of context is ‘very variable’ as a search through Hansard, Parliament’s formal record (and allied […]
Blogroll , Current Affairs , Doctor Who , Food and Drink , Gardening , Mistletoe , Other parasites , social history , toxicity
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Mistletoe Meows
It’s Mistletoe Kitten Time! Mistletoe Diary has been a little inactive this season, largely due to colds, coughs and similar delights, but I’m easing back into it now starting with the easy-win of cats and kittens – as they’re always popular online (as I understand it). There is no immediately obvious mistletoe link, so I could just fill the page with some pictures of cute kitties with mistletoe, like these (left). But I can’t leave […]
Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Food and Drink , Gardening , Mistletoe , Religion , Science , social history , toxicity
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Locating Lindow Man
Whilst in Cheshire last weekend, on non-mistletoe business in Wilmslow, we took the opportunity to visit Lindow Moss, the peatbog where the bog body known as Lindow Man (and also, sometimes, as plain Pete Marsh) was discovered in 1984. The discovery of some mistletoe material in his gut, and some of the over-fanciful interpretations of that, has been discussed by me in the diary before – see 2009 and 2011 – and I thought it […]
berries , Biodiversity , Food and Drink , Media , Mistletoe , Orchard
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Mistletoe Management on BBC Countryfile
We got a good 6 minutes on mistletoe management in neglected orchards on BBC Countryfile’s Christmas programme this year. The location at Moreton Valence, very close to me in Gloucestershire, was a rather neglected apple orchard which has far too much mistletoe in it, the normal balance from regular management having been lost some years, possibly decades, ago. Countryfile’s Adam Henson, a Gloucestershire farmer himself, joined me and my Gloucestershire Orchard Trust colleague Tim Andrews […]
Blogroll , Current Affairs , Food and Drink , Mistletoe , social history
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Dodgy Mistletoe Spin-offs 2021 #1 The Smooching Sweater
The first of a few rather tasteless mistletoe-themed things for this season. Thankfully it’s too late to get this one – the Smooching Sweater – now, so there’s no need to worry. Unless someone managed to get you one for Christmas. Each sweater had to be won though – you couldn’t just buy one. The competition closed at the end of November, so they may already be collectibles. And it was US-based, not here in […]
berries , Current Affairs , druids , Food and Drink , Gardening , Media , Mistletoe , Orchard , social history
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Mistletoe and Orchards on ITV today
Plenty of mistletoe mentions on ITV this morning – all within the 2 hour show Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh (on ITV Hub here). Helped along a bit by Sir Cliff ‘Mistletoe and Wine‘ Richard being the main guest. Christmas swag-making featured about 30 minutes in – with plenty of mistletoe incorporated into a very long decoration. Some good mentions of how sticky the berries are, and their need for light when germinating, but […]
Blogroll , Food and Drink , Media , Mistletoe , social history
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Is a Mistletoe Market about mistletoe?
Or just a generic Christmassy-themed retail-fest? The phrase Mistletoe Market is fairly uncommon here in the UK – the mistletoe auctions at Tenbury Wells are sometimes called this, but not often. We also have a few Mistletoe Fairs – some more mistletoey than others (of which more in another post soon) – but we have few events formally called a Mistletoe Market. But cross the atlantic and the US is brimming with ‘mistletoe markets’, some […]
Blogroll , Current Affairs , Food and Drink , Mistle Thrush , Mistletoe , Science , social history
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Birdlime #1 – Sticky Ends
Turdus ipse sibi malum cacat, an old latin proverb, relates directly to mistletoe, and to the capture of birds. It translates as ‘the thrush excretes its own trouble (or death)’ and is all about Birdlime, a sticky substance once used widely to capture small birds. One of the traditional, and perhaps fundamental, ingredients of Birdlime, was mistletoe, especially the sticky juice form the berries. The proverb is about mistle thrushes, eating mistletoe berries and creating […]
Current Affairs , Food and Drink , Mistletoe , Orchard , social history
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Lots of berries – and they’ll be all white on the night…
Nearly mistletoe harvesting time, with the berries ripening nicely. And, on the mistletoe here in the Severn Vale at least, there are lots of berries. Again (several years running now). There’s a slide show below showing some pictures I took this week in the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust‘s orchards at Longney, demonstrating the huge number of berries in the (handful of) mistletoe-laden apple trees there. Most of the berries have whitened up now, though some are […]