Well G’Day once again my friends and welcome to the merry month of December. Well, we can hope 🙂
German tangler Indrani Novello’s playful Mizzle tangle is perfect for this month’s holiday themed occasions.
Indrani writes,
I do like my flora-based tangles, and this one is inspired by the mistletoe plant.
As a tangle it is a close relative of both “Pendrills” and Rick’s version of “Flux“.
And while it is a take on a Christmas-tradition plant I think this one is not holiday-specific and will be a nice one to do year round. I can see it making colourful additions to ZIAs or renaissance tiles.
Have fun exploring it.
Mistletoe with berries. Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay
According to the Woodland Trust,
Mistletoe is a familiar Christmas staple, soaked in folklore and midwinter tradition. But where does it grow and how can you find it in the wild?
Mistletoe grows in the branches of trees such as hawthorn, poplar and lime, although in the UK the most common hosts are cultivated apple trees. Despite growing on trees, mistletoe is not generally found in a woodland setting, preferring hosts in open situations with plenty of light.
The National Wildlife Federation explains,
Often used as a symbol of renewal because it stays green all winter, mistletoe is famed for its stolen-kisses power. But the plant also is important to wildlife, and it may have critical value for humans, too. Extracts from mistletoe — newly used in Europe to combat colon cancer, the second greatest cause of cancer death in Europe and the Americas — show signs of being more effective against cancer, and less toxic to humans, than standard chemotherapy.
Among the many interesting facts in the NWF article:
- There are 1,300 mistletoe species worldwide. The continental United States and Canada are home to more than 30 species, and Hawaii harbors another six.
- Trees infested with mistletoe die early because of the parasitic growth, producing dead trees useful to nesting birds and mammals. A mistletoe-infested forest may produce three times more cavity-nesting birds than a forest lacking mistletoe.
- When a mistletoe seed lands on a suitable host, it sends out roots that penetrate the tree and draw on its nutrients and water. Mistletoes also can produce energy through photosynthesis in their green leaves.
- As they mature, mistletoes grow into thick, often rounded masses of branches and stems until they look like baskets, sometimes called “witches’ brooms,” which can reach 5-feet wide and weigh 50 pounds.
- Mistletoes produce white berries, each containing one sticky seed that can attach to birds and mammals for a ride to new growing sites. The ripe white berries of dwarf mistletoe, native to the western United States and Canada, also can explode, ejecting seeds at an initial average speed of 60 miles per hour and scattering them as far as 50 feet.
- The mistletoe’s white berries are toxic to humans but are favored during autumn and winter — when other foods are scarce — by mammals ranging from deer and elk to squirrels, chipmunks and porcupines. Many bird species, such as robins, chickadees, bluebirds, and mourning doves, also eat the berries.
So don’t eat the berries! There’s more in the article, check it out!
And why do we kiss under the mistletoe? The History Channel explains here.
Indrani illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Mizzle below and she includes it in a tile with the Zentangle®-original Jetties and Antonine Megger’s fun CO2.
Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. These images are for your personal offline reference only. Please feel free to refer to the images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to the images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. Thank you for respecting these rights. “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” ~ Albus Dumbledore
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December 2, 2020 | 
More like this: 
My first thought was that it looked like mistletoe. Then I read the narrative and – that is what it is supposed to look like. Though we have MUCH mistletoe in some of our oak trees I can still say I do appreciate the delicacy of your tangle. I like it and am sure I will use it. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Beautiful pattern, thank you