1. LORANTHUS, Linn.
Parasitic shrubs. Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, entire, coriaceous. Flowers hermaphrodite, often highly coloured, yellow or orange or red, rarely white or greenish, in axillary racemes or cymes, rarely solitary. Perianth double; outer (calyx) adnate to the ovary; limb short, truncate or 4–6-toothed; inner (corolla) tubular, of 4–6 free or more or less connate petals, their tips ultimately spreading or reflexed. Stamens as many as the petals and inserted on them; filaments distinct; anthers adnate or versatile. Ovary inferior; style filiform; stigma terminal. Fruit a berry.
A large genus of about 350 species, abundant in the tropics, but rare in temperate regions. The New Zealand species are all endemic.
| A. Anthers continuous with the filament, not versatile. | |
| * Petals free to the base. | |
| Flowers small, greenish, ⅛ in. long, in small trichotomous panicles | 1. L. micranthus. |
| Flowers 1 in. long, axillary, solitary or 2–4 together | 2. L. tetrapetalus. |
| Flowers 1½–2 in. long, in 3–9-fiowered racemes | 3. L. Colensoi. |
| ** Petals united to the middle or nearly so (sometimes dorsally split to the base in L. Adamsii). | |
| Flowers 1½–2 in. long, 2 to 4 at the top of a short axillary peduncle | 4. L. Adamsii. |
| Flowers ½–¾ in. long, in 10–15-flowered racemes | 5. L. flavidus. |
| B. Anthers not continuous with the filament, versatile. | |
| Flowers 1 in. long, in axillary trichotomous panicles | 6. L. tenuiflorus. |
1. L. micranthus, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 100.—A perfectly glabrous bushy shrub 2–5 ft. high; branches terete, the younger ones flattened and 2-edged. Leaves opposite, 1½–3 in. long, oblong or elliptic-oblong or oblong-obovate, rounded at the tip, narrowed into a stout petiole about ⅓ in. long, thick and coriaceous, veins very obscure. Panicles small, ½–¾ in. long, axillary, trichotomously branched, many-flowered; branches slender, divaricating. Flowers minute, greenish, ⅛ in. long. Calyx-tube cylindrical; limb very minute, truncate. Corolla of 4 linear-oblong spreading petals, free to the base. Anthers small, oblong, basifixed. Style stout, short, suddenly twisted up and down at the middle; stigma lateral, capitate. Berry bright-yellow, oblong, viscid, ⅓ in. long.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 107. Viscum antarcticum, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 483 (not of Forst.).
North and South Islands: Abundant in lowland districts throughout. Sea-level to 2000 ft. October–November.
Easily distinguished by its small green flowers. Parasitic on Coprosma, Melicope, Leptospermum, &c.
