Discovery and History

Already Hippocrates (460 – 377 BC) recommended mistletoe to treat diseases in the spleen and complaints associated with menstruation (Bussing 2000). However, proofs of its existence are much older. Representatives of the Viscaceae found on the European continent originated in the southern hemisphere, during the Late Cretaceous period, when the southern continents constituted the entire landmass of Gondwana (Barlow 1988). Representatives of the Viscaceae family owe their current range to the gradual migration of tree host species along the continent from Asia to Europe (Barlow 1987). In Central Europe, the presence of Viscum was found in the younger stages of the Neogene in deciduous and mixed forests, on trees of the genera: Acer L., Betula L., Tilia L., and Ulmus L.. (Stuchlik et al. 1990). During the Ice Age, mistletoe was found in Europe in the Mediterranean basin, and after the glacier receded, it migrated north with its hosts (Tubeuf 1923). In Holocene sediments, Viscum pollen has been found in southwestern Jutland and the Netherlands (Iversen 1960), while in Denmark, Viscum pollen has been discovered in boreal, Atlantic and subboreal sediments (Godwin 1975). Fossil evidence shows that during postglacial warmth period Viscum was distributed in most provinces of northern Sweden.

Into the North America (near Sebastopol, California) the European mistletoe was introduced around 1900 by horticulturist Luther Burbank (Scharpf and Mc Cartney 1975; Scharpf and Hawksworth 1976; Hawksworth et al. 1991). Although Viscum here is characterized by its high ability to take over both native and non-native trees (Mc Cartney et al. 1973; Hawksworth et al. 1991, Shaw and Lee 2020) the plant did not spread massively (Zuber 2004). In 1988, the European mistletoe was also found on Malus Mill. in Canada (Dorworth 1989).