Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Brittle, hemiparasitic, producing haustoria that penetrate the host.

Stems: Stems cylindrical, sometimes some of the upper ones slightly flattened, 1–1.5(–2) dm long, all stems similar in width, second internode 6–15(–20) mm long, 1.5–2.5(–3) mm wide, others usually 8–15 mm long, 1.5–3 mm wide, nerves inconspicuous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple Opposite and distichous. strongly reduced Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers at first opposite and confined to the axils, later often forming a continuous band around the stem. flowers in clusters in the leaf axils, surrounded by a patch of usually dark hairs, the flower groups becoming many–flowered through later development of collateral and serial adventitious buds, sometimes forming a continuous band around the stem, all clusters with staminate and pistillate flowers intermingled. Flowers unisexual, minute, actinomorphic; each flower subtended by a small bract. Calyx (sepals) absent. Corolla of pistillate flowers 3-lobed, the lobes short, triangular, valvate. Staminate flowers globose in bud, later with 3 triangular segments, Stamens connate into a globose synandrium, 6 celled; anthers opening by slits toward the center of the synandrium. Pollen ultimately pouring out from a single central, apical pore. Ovary inferior (pistillate flowers), clavate or pear–shaped in bud, 3–4-carpellate, 1-celled; style terminal; stigma nipple–shaped, the embryo sacs first growing downward, then curving upward in the ovary wall, eventually U–shaped.

Fruit: Berries with persistent corolla; fleshy; glossy. Seeds 1 per fruit; flattened in the upper portion; seed coat absent; endosperm starchy; chlorophyllose.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Dry to mesic forest and open bogs.

Elevation Range: 400–1,250(–1,830) m.