Loranthaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them are hemi-parasites, only three express the mistletoe habit. The three terrestrial species are Nuytsia floribunda - the 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, the Loranthaceae family contained all mistletoe species, but the typical christmas mistletoes of Europe and North America (the genera Viscum and Phoradendron) belongs to the family Viscaceae which is sometimes considered to be included within the family 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. |
