Loranthaceae
Template:Short description Template:Automatic taxobox
Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants.<ref name=FoAO/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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,<ref name=Barlow1997/> while Tristerix aphyllus is almost holoparasitic.<ref name=Stevens/> For a more complete description of the Australian Loranthaceae, see Flora of Australia online Template:Webarchive.,<ref name=FoAO/> for the Malesian Loranthaceae see Flora of Malesia.
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.
PhylogenyEdit
Molecular phylogenetics suggests the following relationships of tribes, subtribes and genera:<ref name=Der/><ref name=Vidal-Russell/><ref name=Malecot/><ref name=Amici/> Nuytsia is sister to the rest of the Loranthaceae,<ref name=Vidal-Russell2005/> 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.<ref name=Stevens/> The root parasitic habit is thought to be the basal condition of the family.,<ref name=Stevens/> with the stem/branch parasitic habit evolving ca. 28-40 million years ago.<ref name=Stevens/><ref name=Vidal-Russell2008/> However, Grimsson et al. (2017)<ref name=Grimsson/> estimate this as occurring somewhat earlier (ca. 40-52 million years ago).
GeneraEdit
78 genera are accepted:<ref name = powo>Loranthaceae Juss. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 6 December 2023.</ref> Template:Columns-list
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Template:Commons category-inline
- Loranthaceae on the Parasitic Plant Connection web site
- Notanthera heterophylla illustrations
- Chilean Loranthaceae at Chileflora
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