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foolish_m0rtalArticle taken from The News & Advance
LYNCHBURG --James Henderson leans forward, slowly squeezes the trigger and lets loose with a series of shots that echo in the crisp morning air. The bare branches of the dying oak shimmy, sending fat water drops onto Henderson's bright green turtleneck.
"I love shooting mistletoe because it always reminds me of my granddad," said Henderson, who sells the mistletoe at Lynchburg's Community Market during the holidays.
His grandfather's .22 single-shot rests against the moss-speckled fence as he examines the clusters of green bunched tightly against different branches of the tree.
"A lot of people like using ladders, but I grew up shooting it," he said with a smile as he nestles the butt of the gun against his shoulder again.
Lynchburg's Marilyn Brooks was thrilled when she saw the big bunches of mistletoe at the market a few weeks ago.
"We decorate extensively over the holidays for our guests," said Brooks, who owns Ivy Creek Farm Bed and Breakfast. She put up two huge Christmas trees and filled the sleigh in the front with lights, magnolias and holly. And for the first time in a while, the front hall chandelier is adorned with mistletoe.
"I was very happy to find it this year," said Brooks. "It was something that my parents had, a tradition from my childhood. I'm trying to create a memory for my children and grandchildren and for my guests if they haven't had that tradition."
Brooks said she hasn't seen any guests take inspiration from the mistletoe yet, but "it's there in case they want to take advantage of the situation."
Amore is one more reason that Henderson loves mistletoe hunting around his Concord home place. Mistletoe, to which people have attached many mystical qualities to through the decades, is best known for bringing luck to those who kiss beneath it.
"They're not just seeing a plant, or a decoration — they're seeing romance. It promotes good feelings more than just about any other plant I know," Henderson said.
The mistletoe that Henderson plucks from trees this time of year is from the Santalaceae genus. It almost always appears, in central Virginia in dying oaks, Henderson said. Spread from tree to tree by birds, mistletoe is called a semi-parasitic plant because it draws water and nutrients from the tree.
"This is the last batch that I know of within a 20-minute radius," said Henderson, surprised to find the white berry-laced mistletoe midway up a tree. Mistletoe typically clings to a tree's tiptop. Sometimes mistletoe hunters clear a tree of every cluster, he said, which prevents the mistletoe from coming back quickly. His tradition is to "prune" the clusters, leaving the stem intact so there will be more mistletoe to harvest the following year.
"This is usually not Annie Oakley time," he said, as he waited for cars to pass on the slushy road nearby.
In his neighborhood of Plum Branch in what is now Concord, he said decorating with mistletoe is a tradition, just as collecting the heavily scented running cedar used to be. Running cedar has virtually disappeared, too, he said. On a friend's private farm down the road from his home, Henderson finishes shooting. He steps over the wooden fence in one stride and walks a few feet away to see his bounty.
"Oh, that's a perfect piece; see the berries?" he said as he gathers green sprigs from the snow with his bare hands and plops them into his basket. "So instead of selling this piece with the berries, we'll harvest them and try to grow mistletoe."
Henderson sometimes spends an entire day hunting the plant. It took about an hour and more than three dozen .22 shells to fill one basket of mistletoe on a recent Friday.
"I love the tradition, I live for it," said Henderson, who gets a kick out of watching amorous shoppers stop to see the mistletoe and talk about how he harvested it. The tradition began when he was a child; he would stay outside hunting with his grandfather until he felt frozen.
"I don't think I ever wanted to go in when I was out with my granddad," he said. "It doesn't get much better than that."
