Christmas 2024 Mistletoe Hung at the Townsend River Walk & ArboretumChristmas 2024 Mistletoe Hung at the Townsend River Walk & Arboretum.
Stop by for a Smooch!

The Volunteers at the Townsend River Walk & Arboretum would like to Wish Everyone a Very Merry Christmas!

The TRWA is now officially ready for Christmas with the hanging of the mistletoe.  We invite everyone to stop by and take it for a spin.  Lip balm is recommended, you won't want to leave!

I was able to shoot down a nice piece of American mistletoe (Phoradendron) the other day at the house and immediately let Rodney & Allison know that we need to hang it and it had to have a sign.  Well, leave it up to them to come up with this fantastic sign and it worked perfectly.  Mistletoe is a parasitic plant with it's scientific name Phoradendron meaning “thief of the tree” in Greek.  It is native and has been around for thousands of years and is an intricate component to a healthy ecosystem.

Before we get geeky with scientific information a little about the kissing under the mistletoe tradition.

Mistletoe and the ultimate kiss has a long tradition dating back thousands of years with the Druids then the Norse.  Although history is a bit sketchy sometime in the 1700's in England it became common for servants to hang mistletoe and the lucky or unlucky lady had to wait for a kiss. Around 1820 Washington Irving, an American Author, wrote that  each berry on a sprig of mistletoe had come to represent a kiss that a man was allowed to bestow upon a young woman standing underneath the plant, and “when the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases.”.

If you stop by and steal a kiss, take a pic and post it on Facebook tagging us @townsendriverwalk or post it as a comment to our article on our Facebook page. 

Read more about the Mistletoe Kissing Tradition in the Smithsonian Magazine and/or Southern Living.

Today it is just plain fun for us human folk to still a kiss under the mistletoe but what a treat for birds, butterflies, bees and other insects and animals.  It provides shelter, food and even is a host plant for specific butterflies.  Read all about how valuable the Mistletoe is to nature at the US Geological Survey. It is an eye opening article!

Rodney & Allison Testing and Demonstrating the Proper Procedure Under the Mistletoe.  Everything checked out just fine.Rodney & Allison Testing and Demonstrating the Proper Procedure Under the Mistletoe. Everything checked out just fine.