Mistletoe

Mistletoe in the wild - Freebigpictures.com

If you are looking at the blog on Christmas, you should have some reward so here it is.  A modern Christmas means, among other things, delayed flights, lost luggage and late bedtimes.  In our case it means all three, so our visiting family got to bed at 1:00 AM and are still blissfully asleep.

In lieu of writing something original, I am referring you to The Hemiparasite Season in today's New York Times.  The Times may not be your usual source for arcane biology, but trust me, this one is good, written by Olivia Judson*.  It is about tradition, 1300 species of mistletoe growing high in trees and how they live.  Eventually it gets back to scat.

Money doesn't grow on trees, but mistletoe does, so Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings or what ever rings your chimes.

*  Olivia Judson, author of  Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation.