Plant: aerial parasitic shrub; 2-25 cm high, glabrous, dioecious; SHOOTS 5-7(-18) cm high, 1-3 mm wide at base, gray or straw-colored

Leaves: reduced to minute scales

INFLORESCENCE: axillary spikes

Flowers: decussate (sometimes whorled), short pedicellate; staminate flowers 2.5-3 mm diameter; tepals 4-6, with a central nectary, the perianth segments (2-)3-4(-5), each segment bearing a sessile, circular, uniloculate anther; pistillate flowers with a single style and rounded stigma, the perianth segments 2, persistent

Fruit: 4 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, bicolored, dehiscing explosively (to 15 m); pedicels curved at maturity; SEED without a thickened seed coat, eaten and distributed primarily by birds or dispersed explosively

Misc: Mixed conifer forests; 2100-2600 m (7000-8600 ft); Aug

Notes: HOST: Pinus strobiformis

REFERENCES: Hawksworth, Frank G. 1994. Viscaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27(2), 241-245.