Southern Folks - Any mistletoe experts out there?

[Saki]

Am just getting ready to throw out the sprig I had for the holidays. I normally try to visit a college buddy in Tennessee before the holidays and bring some back to pass out to family and friends and sawmill customers. I enjoy the trip and love to spread the Christmas cheer. It is usually harvested via 22 rifle with a good scope which makes for a great story when I am passing it out. I realized that other than knowing that it is some type of parasite and it seems to like hickory and sycamore, I know very little about it. I have never seen it here in Indiana and figure it doesn't grow this far north due to the cold. Anybody have any other info to share? Thanks, Saki.

[Burlkraft]

Saki...ya need ta get hold of Beenthere....He'll give ya the low down on shotgun harvesting... :D :D :D

[Cedarman]

I see some once in a while in So In.  Was growing on an old gum on my place back in the 70's, but the gum is gone and so is all the mistletoe.  I see a lot in central Ky.

[KGNC]

Not an expert but when I was a kid we use to sell a little of it a Christmas. But that was just an excuse to go blasting limbs out of trees with a shotgun.  It was always interesting to shoot up into a tree and see what would come crashing down.
Never seem to grow on the top of the mountain, mostly just on the sunny side of the hill. It did like oaks and hickory and black gum. It was easier to get out of the black gums, the generally were not as tall.

[TexasTimbers]

yeah shotgun harvesting might be messy but it is much safer. We all know how far a 22 cal can travel.
I saw on that mythbuster show where (I will paraphrase for the sake of brevity) a bullet which reaches or nearly reaches its apex will not have enough energy when it comes back down to kill a human if it hits one. But when the arc is such that gravity cannot slow it down very much of course we know the results.
I always thought that "Penny falling from the Empire State Building" was bull anyway. My reasoning was that although hails stones are much less dense than a penny and offer more resistance to the wind (maybe not a penny tumbles badly) and they don't kill ya until they get really big so i always doubted the penny theory.
Oh yeah, mistletoe. Nice stuff. ;)

[Saki]

Sounds like I am not the only one to harvest a plant with a firearm. Seems a lot of folks on the forum have done some of this from time to time. It does make the season brighter.

[Texas Ranger]

I did a thesis on mistletoe when in college.  that was 45 years ago.  To my memory the stuff is parasitic, has a bunch of different species based on host, location, etc.  It is a true parasite growing into the bark of the tree and getting nutrients and water from the host.  It reproduces and produces seeds that are disseminated either by being shot out of a seed pod, or being sticky and sticking to birds, squirrels, and such.  Got a bunch in pecan here in Texas, have never really looked for it in the woods, a minor problem in the south, to the best of my knowledge.  Worse out in the west.

[Riles]

Don't need firearms in this part of Louisiana, I can walk down the street and pick it off the neighbor's tree. The sample for my leaf collection came from a plant growing through a fence on campus. It's everywhere in the hardwoods and especially noticeable this time of year.

The "exploding" mistletoe is the western species and became a problem with fire suppression - the trees have to be close enough for a shooting seed to hit.

[Polly]

 8) 8) i could be wrong but all i have seen in central ky has been in walnut trees  what do you do according to folk lore when   you     find a lady standing under a bunch of mistletoe  : :

[Riles]

Well you certainly don't try to grab her walnuts!

[sandmar]

DanG folks,If it's mistletoe you want just ask,I gots plenty in an old oak right at the end of my house.......lots more in the woods also  ;) Haven't shot any out since I was a kid[nevermind how long that's been!..and  no it was not a muzzle loader]. I been married for 32 years and that sorta took the fun out of it  :-\
Sandmar