This is the time of the year when you hear words that aren’t mentioned as much the rest of the year.
Words like mistletoe, holly and partridge.
This is also the time of the year when plants having those names are much easier to see growing out in the woods along trails.
Mistletoe can be found worldwide, but species native to North America are ones we think about with the Christmas “kissing under the mistletoe” tradition. The tradition isn’t new, and dates back to Roman times, where mistletoe was associated with fertility, peace and love.
This time of year, with the leaves off the trees, you can spot the round green shape of mistletoe high on bare branches.
Mistletoe starts as a seed deposited on a branch by birds. It starts out like most plants, creating food through photosynthesis, but as mistletoe grows, its roots penetrate into the tree branch and it begins to get water and food from the tree, as a parasite.
Usually, the mistletoe coexists with the tree, but a big infestation can eventually kill the host tree.
The traditional method of collecting mistletoe to hang for the holidays was to shoot it out of the high branches with a .22 rifle. These days, that is not a good idea if your .22 bullet comes down on someone’s head a mile away. The pruning is safer for everyone.
Another native green winter plant around here is American holly. There are many kinds of landscaping hollies, but any holly that you see in the woods is probably American holly.
Like some other plants, hollies can be either male or female. Female hollies get red berries, male hollies don’t.
If you have a holly in your yard or nearby woods without berries, it is for one of two reasons. Either it is a male holly, or it is a female holly with no male holly nearby to pollinate the flowers. These types of plants are called dioecious.
Here is an interesting side note, since we are talking about male and female plants:
American chestnut trees have both male and female flowers on the same tree, but the male pollen on a chestnut tree can only pollinate the female flowers on a different chestnut tree.
This type of plant is called monoecious.
There is a small plant that grows close to the forest floor with dark green leaves and red berries that is often unnoticed when everything is green.
Partridgeberry stands out along trails this time of year.
I, kiddingly, told a hiking buddy recently to eat some partridgeberries to see if they were poisonous.
Researching them later, it turns out that they are edible for humans, but the description of the taste didn’t sound encouraging.
Another side note, while in Denali National Park a few years ago, a ranger told us that any berry found in that part of Alaska was safe to eat, and so we tried every berry that we found.
Edible and tasty are miles apart.
Many birds migrate south in the winter to find food, but some birds like bluebirds stay here year-round.
Insect eaters like bluebirds can find some — but not enough — insects to sustain them in the winter, so they rely on berries, such as from holly, mistletoe, partridgeberry, dogwood and many others, even poison ivy berries, to get them through the cold weather.
On your next outdoor walk, look around for these green winter plants — mistletoe, holly and partridgeberry — associated with the holiday season.
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