Loranthaceae

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Loranthaceae
Ligaria cuneifolia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Core eudicots
Order: Santalales
Family: Loranthaceae
Juss.[1]
Genera

See text

Distribution of the Lorenthaceae.
Psittacanthus flowering atop a tree

Loranthaceae is a family of flowering plants, which has been universally recognized by taxonomists. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemi-parasites, all of them except three having the mistletoe habit. The three terrestrial species are Nuytsia floribunda – the Western Australian Christmas tree, Atkinsonia ligustrina – a rare shrub of the Blue Mountains of Australia, and the Central to South American species of Gaiadendron punctatum.

Originally Loranthaceae contained all mistletoe species, but the typical Christmas mistletoes of Europe and North America (the genera Viscum and Phoradendron) belong to the family Santalaceae; previously these two genera and their closest relatives were in a separate family, Viscaceae, which has been merged into Santalaceae.

The APG II system (2003; unchanged from the APG system of 1998) assigns the family to the order Santalales in the clade core eudicots.

Genera

See also

References

  1. ↑ Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III" (PDF). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x. Retrieved 2013-07-06. 

External links

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