Loranthaceae

Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants.^[2][3] It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites. The three terrestrial species are Nuytsia floribunda (the Western Australian Christmas tree), Atkinsonia ligustrina (from the Blue Mountains of Australia), and Gaiadendron punctatum (from Central/South America.) Loranthaceae are primarily xylem parasites, but their haustoria may sometimes tap the phloem,^[4] while Tristerix aphyllus is almost holoparasitic.^[5] For a more complete description of the Australian Loranthaceae, see Flora of Australia online Archived 2018-04-01 at the Wayback Machine.,^[2] for the Malesian Loranthaceae see Flora of Malesia.

Loranthaceae
Ligaria cuneifolia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Santalales
Family:	Loranthaceae Juss.[1]
Genera
See text
Distribution of the Loranthaceae.

Psittacanthus flowering atop a tree

Originally, Loranthaceae contained all mistletoe species, but the mistletoes of Europe and North America (Viscum, Arceuthobium, and Phoradendron) belong to the family Santalaceae. The APG II system 2003 assigns the family to the order Santalales in the clade core eudicots.

Phylogeny

Molecular phylogenetics suggests the following relationships of tribes, subtribes and genera:^[6][7][8][9] Nuytsia is sister to the rest of the Loranthaceae,^[10] with many characters, including its pollen, its fruit (dry and three winged), and the number of its cotyledons, differing substantially from all other Loranthaceae genera.^[5] The root parasitic habit is thought to be the basal condition of the family.,^[5] with the stem/branch parasitic habit evolving ca. 28-40 million years ago.^[5][11] However, Grimsson et al. (2017)^[12] estimate this as occurring somewhat earlier (ca. 40-52 million years ago).

Remaining Santalales Loranthaceae Nuytsieae Nuytsia Gaiadendreae Atkinsonia Gaiadendron Elytrantheae Alepis Amylotheca Cyne Decaisnina Elytranthe Lampas Lepeostegeres Lepidaria Loxanthera Lysiana Macrosolen Peraxilla Trilepidea Thaumasianthes Psittacantheae Tupeinae Tupeia Notantherinae Desmaria Notanthera Ligarinae Ligaria Tristerix Psittacanthinae Aetanthus Cladocolea Dendropemon Maracanthus Oryctanthus Oryctina Panamanthus Passovia Peristethium Phthirusa Psittacanthus Struthanthus Tripodanthus Lorantheae Ileostylinae Ileostylus Muellerina Loranthinae Cecarria Loranthus Amyeminae Amyema Baratranthus Benthamina Dactyliophora Diplatia Distrianthes Helicanthes Papuanthes Sogerianthe Scurrilinae Scurrula Taxillus Dendrophthoinae Dendrophthoe Helixanthera Tolypanthus Trithecanthera Emelianthinae Emelianthe Erianthemum Globimetula Moquiniella Oliverella Phragmanthera Spragueanella Tapinanthinae Actinanthella Agelanthus Bakerella Berhautia Englerina Oedina Oncella Oncocalyx Pedistylis Plicosepalus Septulina Socratina Tapinanthus Vanwykia

Genera

78 genera are accepted:^[13]

• Actinanthella
• Aetanthus
• Agelanthus
• Alepis
• Amyema
• Amylotheca
• Atkinsonia
• Bakerella
• Baratranthus (Barathranthus)
• Benthamina
• Berhautia
• Cecarria
• Cladocolea
• Cyne
• Dactyliophora
• Decaisnina
• Dendropemon
• Dendrophthoe
• Desmaria
• Diplatia
• Distrianthes
• Elytranthe
• Emelianthe
• Englerina
• Erianthemum
• Gaiadendron
• Globimetula
• Helicanthes
• Helixanthera
• Ileostylus
• Lampas
• Lepeostegeres
• Lepidaria
• Ligaria
• Loranthella
• Loranthus
• Loxanthera
• Lysiana
• Macrosolen
• Maracanthus
• Moquiniella
• Muellerina
• Notanthera
• Nuytsia
• Oedina
• Oliverella
• Oncella
• Oncocalyx
• Oryctanthus
• Oryctina
• Panamanthus
• Papuanthes
• Passovia
• Pedistylis
• Peraxilla
• Peristethium
• Phragmanthera
• Phthirusa
• Plicosepalus
• Psittacanthus
• Pusillanthus
• Scurrula
• Septemeranthus
• Septulina
• Socratina
• Sogerianthe
• Spragueanella
• Struthanthus
• Tapinanthus
• Taxillus
• Thaumasianthes
• Tolypanthus
• Trilepidea
• Tripodanthus
• Tristerix
• Trithecanthera
• Tupeia
• Vanwykia

See also

• Parasitic plant