Mistletoe

Description:

The European Mistletoe is a hemi-parasitic evergreen shrub, here growing on pine trees and forming roundish shapes 25-100cm in diameter. Leaves are pale green, waxy and oval, some 5cm in length and born in pairs on top of woody stems.

Habitat:

Found growing freely on pine trees inside the Fortress of Mont-Dauphin. These trees looks like planted long time ago on a sandy dig (part of a historic park/garden), this dig surrounding the village inside the fortress. The fortress is built on top of a hill, at some 1100m of altitude, and its environment looks quite dry and wind-beaten.

Notes:

1. The surprise was to find it growing on pine trees, in my mind I always associated it with deciduous trees and mainly oak. However, there seems to be some subspecies specialised in coniferous trees, pine among them. 2. The Mistletoe is toxic (the toxic agent is viscumin) and can be fatal to humans. Nevertheless, there are many uses of mistletoe in alternative medicine, as well as in flavouring agent in some traditional beverages (pomace brandies in Istria and Dalmatia for example). 3. Historically, the Mistletoe is relevant to several cultures and periods - for more details see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistletoe and the Wikipedia link provided beside.