MISTLETOE to most of us means one thing – getting a kiss at Christmas.

But for Ben Carpenter it has become an obsession.

For the past two years, he has counted every single bit of mistletoe he could find in Oxfordshire, and now he has a list to rival Santa.

The 35-year-old has recorded 3,316 clumps of the iconic Christmas berry growing on 913 trees from Oxford city centre out to the wilds of the rural county.

The study, which he undertook entirely in his spare time, is the first of its kind ever made in the county.

The ecological consultant from Abingdon said he wanted to give Oxfordshire a mistletoe database that could help future generations study the effects of climate change.

But he added: “I just loved going out to do it – it was something to do over the winter [when mistletoe blossoms] and I got to go out and explore new areas.”

Mistletoe is hemiparasitic, which means it only lives on trees and takes some of their nutrients.

Along the way Mr Carpenter discovered that mistletoe’s favourite host tree in Oxfordshire is lime, followed by poplar, apple and hawthorn.

Because the record is the first of its kind, we have no idea whether the mistletoe population is rising in Oxfordshire or if numbers have halved in the past decade.

But now that his record exists, it means future researchers will be able to look again in 10 years’ time and find out what – if anything – has changed.

And given some of the unusual weather the UK has had recently, that could be very useful.

December 2015 was the hottest and wettest on record in the UK, and as a result farmers across Oxfordshire found their crops simply had not hibernated.

Cabbages, spring onions and strawberries were blossoming up to three months ahead of normal.

Mr Carpenter said: “I think mistletoe probably prefers colder winters and warmer summers and it may well be these warmer winters are detrimental to it.”

Mistletoe berries are eaten by the mistle thrush and the Eurasian black cap, which may be partly responsible for making the plant as widespread as it is.

Mr Carpenter explained: “Black caps used to just visit the UK in the summer, but recently they have started to stay here over winter, feeding on mistletoe.”

The bird’s droppings, which often contain whole seeds from the mistletoe berries, then help spread the population to new trees.

Having exhausting all the public places he could find for his survey, Mr Carpenter has now appealed for anyone who might know about secret plants hiding away on private estates or city gardens to get in touch to make his list complete.

Log your sightings online at oxfordshiremistletoe.blogspot.co.uk.