Mistletoe

Viscum album

Santalaceae

The kissing parasite — white berries on a host branch, a solstice prop, and a teaching plate so it is not boiled as a winter tonic.

Poison-garden teaching plate. Berries and leaves are toxic. European viscum injections are a specialist oncology product, not a cupboard tea. American Phoradendron is a cousin, also not a tea.

Parts used: None for self-care.
Traditional notes: Historical ritual plant — not a home medicine
Habitat only: Hemiparasite on temperate trees, especially apple and poplar in Europe. Birds sow it by wiping seeds on bark. Habitat on a host, not a seed packet for the vegetable row.

White berries, forked evergreen, on a host branch.
The kissing ball is décor. The clinic extract is a different, regulated object.
American Christmas mistletoe is usually Phoradendron — also not tea.

Safety

All unsupervised internal use Children and the berries

Lore

Pliny has the Druids cutting it with a golden sickle from oak, which may never have happened as written. Baldr died of a mistletoe dart in the Norse story. Victorian England hung it in the hall and forgot the dart. A lectin does not care about either story. The berry is a bird’s glue, not a child’s candy.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.