home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
/
Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
/
M
/
Mistletoe
/
INFOTEXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-09-03
|
584b
|
15 lines
Parasitic evergreen unisexual plant Viscum
album, native to Europe. It grows on trees as
a branched bush, with translucent white
berries. Used in many Western countries as a
Christmas decoration, it also featured in
Druidism. The seeds of the European mistletoe
are dispersed by birds, but the dwarf
mistletoe Arceuthobium pusillum of North
America shoots its seeds at 100 kph/60 mph as
far as 15 m/16 yd. Mistletoes lose water more
than ten times as fast as other plants to
draw nutrients to them, and the dwarf
mistletoe causes loss of 20 million cubic
metres of wood fibre a year.