HAVE A VERY BERRY XMAS

     Toronto’s Sick Kids’ Hospital lists Mistletoe as poisonous; of course they do. We must learn to disregard those spoilsports. I don't think that our Canadian Food Inspection Agency would let stores sell poisonous plants, Yuletide tradition or not.

      Most of us, even as untutored laymen have some understanding of the ‘placebo effect’. A patient seemingly experiences relief from symptoms and apparently benefits from the use of a prescribed medicine when in fact it is nothing more than a sugar pill. It is generally believed that such psuedopharmaceuticals really work but the reasons are still mysterious.

     Poison Control Agencies and people like me who write about ‘poisonous’ plants should now consider the ‘nocebo effect’.  Just as a patient obtains real benefit from a worthless pill when it is prescribed by a trusted physician or in a hospital setting, that the obverse could be equally true.

     Having been assured by a well-regarded authority that a plant part was poisonous someone might indeed show the unpleasant effects of poisoning from an innocuous and harmless source. The more trusted the authority, the stronger the nocebo response.

     If, as I assure you that mistletoe berries are not poisonous, why would they be listed as such? Most likely someone has heard that a substance found in the mistletoe plant is being used in the immediately discredited treatment of some cancers. As somebody once said, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. Still, I am aware that if you ‘search’ mistletoe you will be told that consumption of large quantities of leaves and stems can cause painful discomfort to the digestive system and probably diarrhea. Although it is beyond me how they could possibly know that, except perhaps by tests on animals.

     American Mistletoe is Phoradendron and an official symbol of the State of Oklahoma. All mistletoes are partial parasites (partial because they have their own chlorophyll) and live on many types of trees apparently without harming them.

   The Mistletoe of commerce is Viscum album and it will probably be English. It grows in continental Europe too but the English form is thought to be the best. It has lots of plump white berries that ship well and do not fall off in transit. The berries are not poisonous.

   The supply of English Mistletoe is now threatened. Nothing wrong with the mistletoe, they’re fine  Although the parasite can grow on many types of trees, in England their preference is the apple. So many orchards are now being lost to the urban sprawl of shopping malls and huge parking lots, that  mistletoes are losing their homes.

     Now that China is supplying the world with most of its' apples, it  appears that they will also be the source of this traditional Christmas decoration.      Shèng Dàn Kuài Lè.