Someone added to their season's cheer by helping themselves to the only living, growing mistletoe in Calderdale.

It was there last summer, near the station in Hebden Bridge, then after Christmas the owner reported to me it had disappeared.

Maybe the gatherer didn't realise it was so rare in these parts, but I shouldn't stick up for them.

Helen Blackwell, the gardener, of Hebden Bridge deserves the credit for being champion mistletoe grower.

Actually, she cleverly set up the circumstances for it to be propagated by a wild bird (maybe a mistle thrush?).

She draped a bunch of well-berried mistletoe left from Christmas a few years ago over a post on her allotment, simply to allow the birds the benefit of eating the white, translucent berries, and shortly afterwards noticed the little green sprout coming from her apple tree.

This is what the plant intends. The seeds pass quickly through the bird's digestive tract, with a large quantity of sticky juice.

Where they land on a living tree branch, they stick fast and can germinate in the open air, piercing the bark and becoming a parasite on the tree.

Actually, the mistletoe species are classed as semi-parasites because, though they draw water and nutrients from the host tree, they have green leaves, so they can photosynthesise and create their own energy from sunlight.

There are many different species in the tropics. This may be why ancient tradition venerated the plant in Britain – for its strange evergreen character in winter when growing on a bare tree.

In Helen's case it was on an apple tree, which is a common host in England and France, but it also grows very often in the south on poplars, less often in my observations on lime and rowan.

It can actually grow on many trees, including oak and even on evergreens like pine and cypress.

It grows in Herefordshire in masses on apple trees, where I have gathered it, with the owner's permission.

I have tried applying the seeds manually to various apple trees in my garden, but without success.

The literature says that it is possible to get it going like this, and the action of a bird's stomach is not essential.

Mistletoe from an oak was supposed to be especially magical, and enterprising nurserymen used to sell young oaks with the parasite already established, ready to plant out.

It was uniquely British to kiss under the mistletoe.

The French think we are incurably eccentric buying the weeds they clean out of their orchards each winter!

I once spotted a big bunch on a street tree, a lime, on the outskirts of Winchester. I was out with my daughter and son-in-law.

When I pointed it out to them, he took her gently by the hand across the street and kissed her under the tree. Such romantics!

The little plant in Hebden Bridge that was so handy to pinch would not have had berries on it.