Lysiana Tiegh.

Scientific Description

Common name. Mistletoes. Family Loranthaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs; evergreen. Plants rootless (in the normal sense); partially parasitic. On aerial parts of the host. Leaves cauline (ass.). Stem internodes solid (ass.). Stem growth conspicuously sympodial. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves opposite (sometimes clustered on a condensed axis); leathery, or membranous; edgewise to the stem, or with ‘normal’ orientation; simple. Leaf blades entire; flat, or solid (or compressed); terete; pinnately veined. Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Hairs absent. Extra-floral nectaries absent (ass.). Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite. Entomophilous, or ornithophilous.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in umbels (2-flowered). The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences axillary; inflorescence pedunculate or sessile, may have paired axillary flowers. Flowers pedicellate; bracteate (1 per flower, much shorter than flowers); bracteolate (the two bracteoles adnate to form a ‘calyculus’ external to the calyx); regular to somewhat irregular. The floral asymmetry involving the perianth. Flowers cyclic; tetracyclic. Floral receptacle markedly hollowed. Free hypanthium present; adnate to the ovary. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 3–9; 2 -whorled, or 1 -whorled. Calyx present (KPC), or vestigial (A); 1 -whorled; polysepalous, or gamosepalous; entire, or lobed; when not entire, blunt-lobed, or toothed; open in bud; regular; persistent. Corolla present; 6 (unequal); 1 -whorled; gamopetalous; valvate; tubular; unequal but not bilabiate, or bilabiate, or regular; yellow, or red. Corolla lobes narrow. Androecial members definite in number. Androecium 6. Androecial members adnate (to the corolla); all equal; free of one another (ass.); 1 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 6; all more or less similar in shape (ass.); isomerous with the perianth; alternisepalous (epipetalous). Anthers basifixed; non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; bilocular (KP), or four locular (A); bisporangiate, or tetrasporangiate. Gynoecium 3 carpelled, or 4 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious, or eu-syncarpous; inferior. Ovary unilocular; 1 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1. Ovules not differentiated; in the single cavity 1, or 2 (1 or 2 or more); sessile; ascending; non-arillate; not clearly differentiated from the placenta.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a berry, or a drupe; 1 seeded (per cell). Seeds copiously endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds covered with viscous material; without a testa. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2, or 1.

Etymology. From the Greek for "to release, set free"; ‘allusion to the fact that the plant is henceforth set free from the servitude of its identification with Loranthus linophyllus’.