ABSTRACT
Mistletoes belong to the families Loranthaceae and Viscaceae, which both are taxonomically related to each other, and share the order Santalales. The family of Viscaceae has seven genera (Arceuthobium, Dendrophthora, Ginalloa, Korthalsella, Notothixos, Phoradendron, Viscum) and several hundred species world-wide. The European white-berry mistletoe (Viscum album L.) is an evergreen, dioecious plant growing half-parasitically on its host. V. album is a small shrub with linear lanceolate leathery leaves which persist for several seasons. The yellowish-green flowers grow in the sprout axil and develop the translucent, whitish berries in the late fall and early winter. Theophrastos (371-286 BC) described mistletoe as an evergreen plant growing on pine and fir trees, fed to animals. He recognised that mistletoe does not grow on the earth, but is spread to trees by birds whose excretions contain “seeds” from the berries.
