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Synonyms: Arceuthobiaceae Tiegh.; Bifariaceae Nakai; Ginalloaceae Tiegh.; Razoumofskyaceae Tiegh., nom. inval.
Common name: Christmas-mistletoe Family.
Number of genera 7. Number of species 450.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; berry; berry dehiscent (at least epicarp separates or may explode); berry without central placental mass; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded to more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 1(–2)-seeded; less than 1 cm long, or from 1–5 cm long; 0.6–2.3 cm long; 3–4-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; in transection terete; apex not beaked; wall fleshy; dehiscent, or indehiscent. Dehiscent unit mesocarp(s). Dehiscent irregularly; actively, or passively; explosively; but retaining seed(s); without replum. Epicarp shiny; durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; smooth; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; viscous, or watery (Barlow (1964) noted viscous layer inside the vascular bundles. Contrast with Loranthaceae. Viscum capense L. f. is watery, not viscid.); composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present, or absent; not separating from exocarp; thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; smooth; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa absent; with embryo surrounded and capped at one end with viscid tissue. Endosperm smooth; with starch; without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; without apical lobes; with chlorophyll and green; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; nearly filling testa (trace or scanty food reserve), or partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.4–0.8 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate, or linear; with spatulate cotyledons; straight; parallel to seed length; embedded in endosperm; with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle, or gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.3–0.7 times length of embryo; as wide as hypocotyl-radicle, or somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 1–3 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle (estimated); not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; foliaceous, or not foliaceous; thin; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed, or moderately developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan. New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Notes
Goldberg did not cover this family.
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: California (CA).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Viscum album L.: USA state noxious weed: CA●. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Arceuthobium M. Bieb., nom. cons. -- Dendrophthora Eichler -- Ginalloa Korth. -- Korthalsella Tiegh. -- Notothixos Oliv. -- Phoradendron Nutt. -- Viscum L.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 691. Edouard, J.-A. & A. Raynal-Roques. 1989. Le fruit des guis (Loranthaceae et Viscaceae): utilité pour la taxonomie et mode des dissémination par les oiseaux. Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat., B, Adansonia 3:307–314; Barlow, B.A. 1964. Classification of the Loranthaceae and Viscaceae. Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 89:268–272.
General references
Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Gaertner, J. 1788–1805. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum. The Author, Stuttgart, Gunn, C.R., J.H. Wiersema, C.A. Ritchie, and J.H. Kirkbride, Jr. 1992 and amendments. Families and genera of Spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1796:1–500, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Poor fruit illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Karen, Cronquist, Gaertner. Embryo illustration(s): Karen, Edouard & Raynal-Roques (1989). Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 212: [A-C has no rough], Dendrophthora domingensis [not in GRIN nor IPNI] (D-F), Ginalloa cumingiana [not in GRIN nor IPNI] (G-I), Korthasella platycaula [not listed in GRIN nor IPNI] (2: A-C), Notothixos incanus (Hooker) Oliver (2: D-F). [Lepidoceras squamifer (1: J-L) is now in Eremolepidaceae].
• Fruit. 1 of 15. Ginalloa cumingiana (Presl.) F.-Vill.: fruits. • Seed. 2 of 15. Ginalloa cumingiana (Presl.) F.-Vill.: seeds. • Fruit. 3 of 15. Korthalsella platycaula (Tiegh.) Engl.: fruits. • Seed. 4 of 15. Korthalsella platycaula (Tiegh.) Engl.: seed. • Fruit. 5 of 15. Notothixos incanus (Hook.) Oliv.: fruits. • Seed. 6 of 15. Notothixos incanus (Hook.) Oliv.: seed. • Fruit. 7 of 15. Phoradendron libocedri (Engelm.) Howell: fruits. • Fruit. 8 of 15. Phoradendron libocedri (Engelm.) Howell: fruits with exocarp removed. • Seed. 9 of 15. Phoradendron libocedri (Engelm.) Howell: seeds. • Fruit. 10 of 15. Viscum album L.: fruit. • Seed. 11 of 15. Viscum album L.: seeds. • Embryo. 12 of 15. Dendrophthora domingensis (Spreng.) Eichl.: embryo. • Embryo. 13 of 15. Ginalloa cumingiana (Presl.) F.-Vill.: embryo. • Embryo. 14 of 15. Korthalsella platycaula (Tiegh.) Engl.: embryo. • Embryo. 15 of 15. Notothixos incanus (Hook.) Oliv.: embryo.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2000 onwards. Family guide for fruits and seeds: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 12th April 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
