Cryptic

[terrya]

Make mince-meat of, on December the first? (8) D?C????? Sun , you admit, is essential for this plant (6) ???L??

[1ozzy]

Decimate

[Jackdaw33]

Sallow

[fiction-factory]

I can see the MATE from an anagram of MEAT and the DEC1 but I am not sure where the definition is for decimate

[1ozzy]

Make mince-meat of = decimate

[fiction-factory]

Yes thanks- so are they using the "make mice meat" of bit twice (and moving away from the original meaning of decimate which is to remove one tenth)?

[terrya]

Elucidate the clue for sallow

[fiction-factory]

s (sun)+allow (admit)

[sandyRoe]

First... 1, 1 in 10?

[fiction-factory]

sal·low 2 (săl′ō)
n.
Any of several low-growing or shrubby European willows, especially Salix caprea or S. cinerea, having large catkins that appear early in the spring and formerly used as a source of charcoal and tannin.

[terrya]

thanks