Mistletoe is described as dioecious, meaning it has separate male and female plants. The males flower between February and April, producing small tight clusters of blooms barely seen in the fork between two branching stems carrying four tiny petals. Females produce the familiar white berries in November and December. The berries are popular with certain birds, particularly the mistle thrush. The bird, having digested the soft flesh of the berry, voids the still-sticky seed. If this lands on a suitable branch, it may germinate and with its shoot ‘plug itself in’ to the host tree’s soft bark and begin tapping its liquid food supply. Although relying on trees for support and nourishment, mistletoes do have green leaves containing chlorophyll, and can manufacture food for themselves using the process of photosynthesis.
There are well over a thousand species of mistletoe worldwide, and one of them provides a clue as to how the family became parasitic. In Western Australia there lives a variety of mistletoe known locally as the Christmas tree because it flowers in December. It looks like an ordinary free-standing tree, but underground, its roots reach out and tap the roots of every other nearby plant, from grasses to other trees.