Aerial, hemiparasitic, small to moderate-sized woody or succulent shrubs up to perhaps 0.5 m high, glabrous with mostly greyish to brownish stems
Leaves opposite-subopposite, broad to elongate, succulent to chartaceous
Inflorescence a terminal or axillary raceme, 15-40 mm long, 8-40-flowered
Flowers 4-merous, 5-15 X 1-3 mm, whitish to reddish orange; pedicels short (1-3 mm)
Corolla choripetalous; lobes reflexing from point where filaments arise
Filaments erect; anthers with or without locules
Style quadrangular or sometimes thickened basally
Berry rounded to ellipsoid, red to pink, smooth or warted
x = 9
Nomenclature:
Helixanthera Lour.
Loureiro: 142 (1790)
Danser: 55 (1933)
Wiens & Tölken: 37 (1979)
Polhill & Wiens: 79 (1998)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 45, with 12 species in Africa south of the Sahara and the remaining in tropical Asia
Southern Africa: Species 2, Northern Province, KwaZulu-Natal
References:
DANSER, B.H. 1933. A new system for the genera of Loranthaceae: Loranthoideae, with a nomenclator for the old world species of this subfamily. Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam Afdeeling Natuurkunde, Sect. 2. 29,6
LOUREIRO, J. DE. 1790. Flora cochinchinensis 1. Academy, Lisbon
POLHILL, R. & WIENS, D. 1998. The mistletoes of Africa. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
WIENS, D. & TÖLKEN, H. 1979. Loranthaceae. Flora of southern Africa 10,1
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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