Viscaceae
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Viscaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Family Description - Fls unisexual, regular, epigynous, monochlamydeous; tep valvate, small, seldom more than 4, often reduced to points around the rim of the ovary; stamens as many as and opposite the tep, the filaments often very short (or wanting); ovary 3–4-carpellate, unilocular or solid, containing a massive, placenta-like body nearly or quite filling the locule and including 2 bisporic embryo-sacs; stigma small, sessile or on a very short style; embryology complex and unusual; fr a shining, sometimes explosive berry; seed solitary, without a testa, surrounded or capped at one end by viscid tissue; embryo rather large, dicotyledonous, embedded in the starchy green endosperm; brittle shrublets hemiparasitic or parasitic on the branches of trees, often dichasially branched, usually with nodal constrictions; lvs opposite, exstipulate, simple, entire, often reduced to scales; fls small, mostly borne in spike-like, often branching infls. (Loranthaceae, in part) 7–8/350, cosmop., especially trop.
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Common Names
The Christmas-mistletoe family