Mistletoe Survey – Radio interview

Today I did an interview with David Webster of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire about the Mistletoe survey. We are hoping to get lots of records of Mistletoe growing wild in the city and by publicising it on radio, we will hopefully encourage people to report their sightings. It will be broadcast tomorrow (22/12/2016) at just after 7am

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The Mistletoe hotspot seems to be at the junction of Madingley Road and Queens Road.  There are quite a few good bunches  mostly growing in lime trees.  As you go up Madingley road there are some trees that are heavily covered and must be suffering from the burden.

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This one is a Hawthorn tree outside Churchill College which has a huge Mistletoe growing in the centre of the main branches. This is obviously a female Mistletoe, as the male doesnt have berries.

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Here is a rather more diminutive male plant, showing the haustorium, where the stem of the Mistletoe fuses with the branch of the tree and the modified roots penetrate the host tissue to obtain water and minerals.

We would like to collect any sightings of Mistletoe so please use the  sightings link on this webpage to let us know where the Mistletoe plants are growing. if you prefer to use email, then send your messages to nathistcam@gmail.com . please include exactly where the plant is growing, which host tree species is involved and roughtly how big is the Mistletoe. if you can give us a 6 figure grid reference or a post code that will be very helpful.

Please let us know where you see Mistletoe growing in Cambridge. See our Mistletoe survey for more information.

Duncan Mackay