This festival-exclusive symbol of "red and green" has its origins in China?

Even if you have never paid much attention, you must know many Christmas decorations and cultural elements - Santa Claus and reindeer, Christmas socks and gifts, Christmas trees and glass balls, as well as the familiar Christmas songs and so on.

But among the many Christmas decorations, there is one that is not very common in China. Many Western families will weave evergreen plants such as holly, pine branches, and mistletoe into rings at Christmas, and then decorate them with pine cones, cinnamon, and even seasonal fruits to make Christmas wreaths to hang at the door of their homes, which include today's two protagonists - holly and mistletoe.

This wreath has fewer decorations, but it also has a Christmas feel.

Christmas symbol - European holly

On almost every Christmas card, you can see a plant with dark green leaves with thorny edges and a bunch of red spherical fruits - this is the European holly Ilex aquifolium . Nowadays, compared with physical decorative plants such as "Christmas red", the European holly is more like a graphic cultural symbol , and it appears more frequently on greeting cards and other printed materials than Christmas trees.

Friends who have sent or received Christmas cards, do you think the plants in the picture look familiar? ("Isn't this the headdress of Calabash Brothers?" "No...")丨pixabay

The genus Ilex of the Aquifoliaceae family, to which the European holly belongs, includes about 400 species distributed in temperate to tropical regions around the world. The genus Ilex is highly diverse, with plant forms ranging from shrubs, trees, and climbing vines . The European holly is the representative species of the genus in Europe. Before Linnaeus, Europeans had never figured out what kind of plant holly was. The name of the genus, Ilex , had always been used interchangeably with the specific epithet of Querqus ilex , an oak tree in the Fagaceae family. Both are evergreen plants with thorny leaf margins.

The thorns on the leaf margins of Ilex ilex (above) are too weak compared to those on the European holly (below). You can’t call something “holly” just because it has a few thorns! | Fritz Geller-Grimm & Karelj / wikimedia commons

The red berries of the European holly are very eye-catching, but they can cause vomiting and diarrhea, and eating more than a few of them can be life-threatening for children . Perhaps for this reason, people have gradually begun to use abstract holly images instead of real holly branches to decorate Christmas.

The fruit is poisonous | pixabay

It is worth mentioning that China is one of the diversity centers of Ilex , with more than 200 species, three quarters of which are endemic. Dr. Hu Xiuying, a leader in the field of Chinese plant taxonomy, is an authoritative expert in the study of Ilex.

There is no European holly in China, but there is a species similar in shape to it - Ilex cornuta . The thorns on the edge of the leaves of Ilex cornuta are sharper and longer than those of the European holly, and are very prickly, so it is also known as " birds don't stay " . The red fruits of Ilex cornuta do not wither in winter, and it is an important garden and bonsai tree species .

The fruit of holly is not much different from that of European holly, but the leaves are obviously more domineering. Will some friends mistakenly think that the plant on the Christmas card is holly? 丨Zhangzhugang / Wikimedia Commons

Another famous Chinese holly species is Ilex latifolia , whose leaves become Kudingcha when dried.

Holly species have a variety of leaves, not all of which have thorns on the edges - for example, the large-leaved holly in the picture | Qwert1234 / Wikimedia Commons

Mistletoe, which can easily lead to indiscriminate behavior

Today I will introduce another Christmas plant that you may have heard of - mistletoe. In English movies or songs, it is not uncommon for lovers to kiss under the mistletoe , and it will definitely create a romantic atmosphere.

Does anyone here think of Harry Potter and Cho Chang? | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

However, the actual situation may not be so romantic. According to Western sayings, mistletoe is simply a plant that makes people "do whatever they want" - men can kiss any girl standing under the mistletoe branches, and if the girls refuse, they will be doomed . So for girls, knowing mistletoe may help them avoid it in time to keep safe.

Girls, please recognize this plant...丨pixabay

In the English context, the word mistletoe is a general term for almost all semi-parasitic plants in the order Santalumales, covering several families, such as the Loranthaceae family (where the genus Viscum used to belong) and the Santalaceae family (where it currently belongs). Mistletoe in a narrow sense refers to several common species in this genus, such as V. album , which is only distributed in Europe, and V. coloratum, which is widely distributed in China.

"Does mistletoe grow exclusively on oak trees?"

"It is far more than that. Common trees in the northern temperate zone, such as elm, poplar, willow, birch, oak, pear, plum, apple, maple, poplar and linden, are all its hosts."

"I see. So its name should be 'Hu Jisheng'."

“…”

The stem of mistletoe is dichotomous or trichotomous, and the long oval leathery leaves are opposite or three whorled, which is very different from the stems and leaves of the host plant, making it very easy to identify. Especially in autumn, after the host plant leaves fall, the evergreen mass of mistletoe is exposed.

After the leaves fall, the mistletoe on the tree is like "lice on a bald head"丨Andrew Dunn / Wikimedia Commons

The so-called semi-parasitic plant means that mistletoe can also perform photosynthesis by itself, and theoretically only needs the host to provide water and nutrients. However, the mistletoe's own photosynthetic efficiency is only at a level that is better than nothing , and it still brings a heavy burden to the host. I often see hosts being dragged down by multiple mistletoe plants and dying, and sometimes even the whole tree is crushed by the oversized mistletoe . Although the mistletoe itself cannot survive in this way, its purpose of survival has actually been achieved.

Multiple mistletoe plants are very unceremoniously parasitic on the same tree. H. Zell / Wikemedia Commons

Mistletoe relies on birds to spread its seeds , especially the mistletoe thrush ( Turdus viscivorus ) in Europe. The berries of mistletoe contain a very sticky sap that is excreted very quickly after being eaten by birds. At this time, you can see the seeds hanging on the bird's buttocks by threads; then when the bird rests, the mistletoe seeds can stick to the tree trunk; the seeds will soon germinate, root into the host's bark, and then merge with the host's vascular bundles until death separates them (sounds like something is wrong...).

By the way, the genus name of mistletoe, Viscum , means bird glue , and ancient Europeans used this sticky fruit to catch birds. Unlucky birds.

The mistletoe seed dispersal ambassadors - mistletoe thrush, they can fly all the way with sticky seeds丨animalphotos.me

The fruit of mistletoe is also very beautiful, and it is said that it has different colors depending on the host . The fruit of V. coloratum distributed in China that parasitizes on elm trees is orange-red, if it parasitizes on poplars and maple poplars, it is light yellow, and the fruit of pear trees and mountain ash is red or yellow. The fruit of V. album, a European species, is white.

Beauty online丨mariazellerland-blog.at

The orange-red version of V. coloratum is also very beautiful丨farmazia.ru

However, like the European holly, this beautiful fruit is also poisonous to humans , and eating it can cause severe abdominal pain. This may be the reason why mistletoe has a bad image in traditional culture. In Norse mythology, the god of lies Loki (yes, the one played by Tom Hiddleston) designed to have the blind god Hodur kill his brother Baldur, and the weapon was an arrow made of mistletoe branches. Mistletoe was the only thing that could hurt the latter.

"Yes, it's me."丨"Thor 3: Ragnarok"

Illustration of "The Death of Baldur" in an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript by Jakob Sigurðsson

Mistletoe also has some good connotations, such as vitality and fertility , but these only evolved in the Middle Ages; the function of Christmas to protect men did not appear until the Victorian era. So, if you kiss a girl under the mistletoe and the police are called, you can't use "since ancient times" as an excuse.

The evolution of Christmas culture

In fact, many cultural elements of Christmas have nothing to do with the "birth of Jesus", which is a very interesting phenomenon.

For example, European holly has only been used in Christmas traditions since the 16th century. In addition to being used to decorate Christmas cards and Christmas gifts, European holly is often mentioned together with ivy - the former represents the newborn Jesus, and the latter represents the Virgin Mary. But wait, European holly is dioecious , and the fruit-bearing plant is the female plant, which does not match the gender of Jesus; there is no evidence that ivy can reproduce apomixis, so it does not match the Virgin Mary's virgin birth...

For example, mistletoe, European holly, and fir and spruce used as Christmas trees are not distributed in the Middle East ; even the date of Christmas is wrong - Jesus was born in summer. It can be seen that Christianity has undergone many changes in the process of secularization. In a few years, "eating Christmas apples on Christmas Eve" may also become a Christmas standard.

"Eating peace apples on Christmas Eve" is a Chinese way of using apples (the homonym of "ping" means "peaceful fruit") to convey blessings.

Author: Gu Yourong

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)

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