Plants hemiparasitic shrubs, usually evergreen, usually growing on the branches, sometimes on the roots, of other dicotyledons, attached by woody haustoria, with or without epicortical runners producing secondary haustoria. Leaves opposite, alternate, or whorled, simple, without stipules; blades entire, often leathery or rather fleshy. Inflorescences of racemes, umbels, head, 3-flowered cymes or flowers solitary, at old nodes or terminal; subtending bracts usually 1 per flower, cupular or unilateral, with a small to leafy limb. Flowers often large and brightly colored; calyces rimlike to tubular, entire to shortly toothed; corollas of 4-5 petals or lobes, radially symmetric or, if petals united, corolla sometimes with a unilateral split, valvate; stamens as many as the petals or corolla lobes, epipetalous; anthers basifixed in African species; gynoecium with a single, inferior, ovary; ovary 1-celled or with several obscure cells; ovules not differentiated, embryo sacs formed the base of the ovary; style simple. Fruit usually a berry, rarely dry and winged; seeds without a testa, normally surrounded by a sticky layer developed from the fruit wall.
The Loranthaceae family includes 77 genera and about 950 species. Its members are widely distributed in the tropics and temperate regions, particularly in the southern hemispere. It is relatively poorly represented in Somaliland and Somali but a significant proportion of those that are present in these countries belong to relatively primitive African genera.
