Viscum album originally described by Linnaeus. Its species name is the Latin adjective "albus" "white". It and the other members of the genus "Viscum" were originally classified in the mistletoe family Viscaceae, but this family has since been sunk into the larger family Santalaceae. Several subspecies are commonly accepted. They differ in fruit colour, leaf shape and size, and most obviously in the host trees utilised. European mistletoe is potentially fatal, in a concentrated form, and people can become seriously ill from eating the berries. The toxic lectin viscumin has been isolated from "Viscum album". Viscumin is a cytotoxic protein (ribosome inactivating
Common name nomenclature is a global system that attempts to denote particular organisms or taxa uniquely and , on the assumption that such organisms or taxa are well-defined and generally also have well-defined interrelationships; accordingly the ICZN has formal rules for biological nomenclature and convenes periodic international meetings to further that purpose. The form of scientific names for organisms that are called binomial nomenclature is superficially similar to the noun-adjective form of vernacular names or common names which were used by prehistoric cultures. A collective name such as "owl" was made more precise by the addition of an adjective such as "screech".