Kingdom Plantae Rank Family Order Santalales | Scientific name Loranthaceae Higher classification Santalales | |
Lower classifications Loranthus, Dendrophthoe, Nuytsia, Tristerix corymbosus, Helixanthera schizocalyx | ||
The Loranthaceae are a family of flowering plants. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites, 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 Gaiadendron punctatum.
Originally, the Loranthaceae contained all mistletoe species, but the typical Christmas mistletoes of Europe and North America, whose 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 assigns the family to the order Santalales in the clade core eudicots.
