Mistletoe

This Mistletoe has been cut and brought into the greenhouse ready to give to two friends (one a blipper) who are keen to start some growing on their apple trees. Mrs. K. started some on one of our trees seven or eight years ago and it is now a flourishing sizeable clump.
There used to be more of it in Arnside but sadly several of the old orchards have been lost and not replaced. Of course its real strong hold is in Herefordshire and the Severn valley.

I sometimes think it should be called Mytheltoe.  There are many myths and legends relating to the plant going back to mediaeval times and earlier. It takes five pages in Richard Mabey’s wonderful Flora Britannica to describe them.