Mistletoe Mistletoe Mistletoe is the English common name for most obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. Their parasitic lifestyle have led to some dramatic changes in their metabolism. The name mistletoe originally referred to the species "Viscum album" (European mistletoe, of the family Santalaceae in the order Santalales); it is the only species native to the British Isles and much of Europe. A separate species, "Viscum cruciatum", occurs in Southwest Spain and Southern Portugal,
Common name had not the author introduced into it so many new English names, that are to be found in no dictionary, and that do not preclude the necessity of learning with what Latin names they are synonymous. A tolerable idea may be given of the danger of too great a multiplicity of vulgar names, by imagining what geography would be, or, for instance, the Post-office administration, supposing every town had a totally different name in every language. Various bodies and the authors of many technical and semi-technical books do not simply adapt existing common names for various organisms; they try to