Description:

• Aerial, hemiparasitic shrubs of varying sizes from ± 0.5-2 m or higher, glabrous to densely and variously pubescent; stems usually glabrate with age, often with swollen, floriferous nodes; haustorium with a single primary penetrating organ
• Inflorescence usually an axillary umbel or sometimes a head, often fascicled, occasionally flowers solitary through reduction of peduncles
• Flowers 5-merous, gamopetalous, bilaterally symmetrical by the presence of a unilateral, V-shaped split of varying length
• Corolla with a conspicuously swollen base, or tube cylindrical; lobes erect, glabrous or variously pubescent, mostly yellow, red or combinations thereof
• Filaments coiled or involutely curved at anthesis as result of explosive opening of flower; anthers with or without basal tooth or ledge
• Style filiform or upper half thickened gradually from middle, then abruptly constricted into a neck below stigma
• Berry ellipsoid, ovoid, obovoid or rounded, 8-12(-15) mm long, smooth or stellate-pubescent, pink, whitish orange, red-orange or red

Nomenclature:

• Agelanthus Tiegh
  • Van Tieghem: 246 (1895)
  • Balle: 583 (1955)
  • Polhill & Wiens: 137 (1998)
• Tapinanthus (Blume) Rchb.f. in part
  • Wiens & Tölken: 3 (1979)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species ± 59, in Africa and Arabian Peninsula, the largest and central genus of African Loranthaceae
• Southern Africa: Species ± 10, widespread