Mistletoe flowers and leaves shone bright on Christmas Day at Black Gully Reserve, Tapanui.
West Otago, New Zealand. 25 Dec 2021.
Click on any photo to enlarge.
Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2021/2022)
Christmas Mistletoe
New Zealand
Mistletoe flowers and leaves shone bright on Christmas Day at Black Gully Reserve, Tapanui.
West Otago, New Zealand. 25 Dec 2021.
Click on any photo to enlarge.
Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2021/2022)
Exploring Colour 
What I would like to know is if you and Nigel kissed under all those mistletoes! 😊
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I’ve heard that custom mentioned but don’t know much about it. Whatever gain there’s supposed to be, I guess we’ll miss out!
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I always thought it was a British-derived tradition, but the fact that you aren’t familiar with it makes me question that assumption.
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Aware of it but not familiar. I think you’d be right it’s British-derived. Few NZers these days think of Britain as the “home country” or “mother country”. We’ve had a serious referendum about changing the flag but the majority of the population voted to stay with what we have so the strong visual link via our flag is still there! Now I’ve gone off on a tangent but the link to the referendum story is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%932016_New_Zealand_flag_referendums
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Thank you for the information, Liz. I hadn’t heard about this referendum. It’s not easy to change long-standing traditions because we humans often get very attached to certain symbols.
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What a lovely Christmassy red the mistletoe flowers are. I’ve never seen any mistletoe in flower before.
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Oh? I wonder why? Perhaps the species in your part of the world aren’t so bright?
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I googled and discovered that the UK mistletoe has tiny yellow/green flowers that you wouldn’t easily notice – very different from yours!
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So pretty!
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It really shines on a bright day, both flowers and leaves; which looks lovely but also makes it hard to photograph!
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