Mistletoe could vanish within 20 years

Steven Morris

Conservationists have warned that mistletoe, favourite plant both of pagans and stealers of Christmas kisses, could vanish from the U.K.'s halls and doorways within 20 years.

The National Trust fears that the decline of traditional apple orchards, where mistletoe thrives, may lead to the parasitic plant disappearing — or becoming much harder to obtain.

It is leading a campaign to prompt orchard owners and gardeners to think about nurturing the plant and wants householders to make sure they buy sustainably sourced mistletoe.

The trust says that in the cider heartland — Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire — traditional orchards have declined dramatically in the past 60 years. Many that survive are not tended, hastening the death of the trees and then the plant.— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010