Mistletoe

The mistletoe (Viscum album) is an evergreen plant from the sandalwood family (Santalaceae). The plant lives on trees. It is a semi-parasite: for water and salts the plant is dependent on its host. The mistletoe is also called bird glue or mistletoe, or with the English name mistletoe. The mistletoe is now also successfully cultivated.

* Especially in the Christmas season and around the turn of the year mistletoe is sometimes hung as decoration. The use wants someone who is under it to be punished with impunity.
* The German word for witches broom is Mahrenest. 'Mare' means witch, nightmare, nocturnal tormentor or ghost (see also Morrigan, queen of the buts).
* The mistletoe is known as a witchweed.
* The mistletoe was hung on the beams of stables and served to drive away the mare and keep the cattle fertile.
* In the Celts and Germans the mistletoe was a sacred plant that played an important role in their magical fertility rituals. According to Pliny the Elder, a druid dressed in white in the midwinter ceremony with a golden sickle cut the mistletoe from the holy oak. The cut plant was not allowed to touch the ground and was collected in white cloths. Then the druid slaughtered the sacrificial animals and immersed the mistletoe in water that was then used to protect against diseases and calamities. [1] The offerings were destined for the spirits of fertility, such as the goddess Freya.
* In Norse mythology Baldr is killed by his blind brother Höðr with an arrow with a point of mistletoe, misled by Loki. The mistletoe is, according to mythology, the only thing for which Baldr is vulnerable.
* In the comics of Asterix and Obelix, the druid Panoramix uses mistletoe as part of his secret potion for invincibility. This is the winter leafless Loranthus europaeus, which grows on oak trees.
* Viscosity of liquids derives its name from Viscum, the botanical name of the genus of mistletoe. In the Middle Ages, the berries of the plant were cooked to a syrupy and sticky substance: the bird glue. This was spread on glue sticks. A bird that sat on it then could not leave.
* The mistletoe is known in herbal medicine as a plant with medicinal properties. Research has been conducted into this, in particular into applications in cancer therapy.

(Source: Wikipedia)