Shrubs with Berries  and berrying shrubs  

Shrubs have berries for a reason. They are an vital part of the plant's reproductive method. Berries are eaten by birds or animals, who are only interested in the juicy fleshy part of the berry. After eating the berry, the animals wander off to other areas, and eventually deposit the seed part of the berry, which has not been digested in the stomach, so passed through the body in the normal way.

In some instances, the digestive juices of the stomach do a little bit of work on the hard seed shell - making it more ready to germinate in the position where it is deposited - ready to form a new plant.

The berries of Mistletoe on the other hand, are spread by birds onto neighbouring trees where they are unwittingly (habitually?) forced into the crevices of bark as they try to separate the sticky outer flesh of the mistletoe berry from the inner hard seed. It seems in this instance, that the actual seed within the berry, is best separated from the desirable flesh, rather than gulping down the while lot and allowing the digestive system to take its natural course, with the conclusion being the depositing of the seed in distant places. The mistletoe is rarely deposited on the same tree - for this would give the parent plant more competition for the sap of the tree on which the parasitic plant lives.