Viscum L.

A genus of about 113 species (POWO 3/9/2025) of hemiparasitic shrubs, mostly in the African tropics and subtropics, a few extending into Temperate Asia and Australia, only two into Europe. They draw most of their nourishment from the host plant by means of suckers (haustoria) inserted in its conductive tissues, but are not true parasites, the leaves being green and photosynthetic. Annual growths dichotomous, short, each with a pair of opposite, leathery, persistent, parallel-veined leaves. Flowers inconspicuous, cymose, unisexual. Perianth with two or four segments. Anthers sessile, adnate to the perianth segments and containing numerous pollensacs. Ovary inferior, with an almost sessile stigma. Fruit berry-like, containing one to three embryos embedded in the endosperm (neither ovules nor true seeds are developed in the Loranthaceae, but the contents of the mature ovary are usually termed a single seed lacking a testa).