R.M. Polhill and D. Wiens (1999) Loranthaceae 2:130-143
Plants shrubs, often large and pendent, with a single haustorial attachement; branchlets slightly compressed, at least the oungest parts with scales, stellate and verticillately branched dendritic hairs. Leaves usually opposite or subopposite, rarely ternately, usually petiolate, usually somewhat leathery, penniveined. Inflorescences sessile to shortly peunculate umbels or 2- several together in the axils; bracts unliateral, often gibbous, sometimes enlarged and leaflike. Buds with basal swelling variably developed, apical swelling fusiform to globular, sometimes ribbed or narrowly winged. Flowers bisexual; calyces annular to shortly tubular; corollas 5-lobed, tubes longer than the lobes, usually yellow or orange with red markings or more generally reddish, but colours often muted by indumentum; tubes split unilaterally with a V-slit; lobes erect of reflexed, narrow below upper part expanded to varying degrees and often hardened inside; stamens attached near the base of the lobes, linear, inrolled at anthesis. sometimes with a tooth in fron of the anthers; anthers oblong to linear-oblong, with the 4 thecae transversely divided into several-many locules; styles slender, 5-angled or narrowly 5-winged, often expanded opposite the filaments. Berries reddish, or blue to blue-green, ellipsoid or obovoid, usually the calyx persistent.
Phragmanthera includes about 34 species, all of which grow in Africa or Arabia. The Flora of Somalia includes only one species, Phragmanthera dschallensis, which is reported from region N1. From there, it appears to be disjunct to the midlands of Ugana and Kenya from which it extends south through Tanzani to Zambia.