Plant: aerial parasitic shrub; 2-25 cm high, glabrous, dioecious; SHOOTS 2-3(-7) cm high, 1 mm wide at base, green

Leaves: reduced to minute scales

INFLORESCENCE: axillary spikes

Flowers: decussate (sometimes whorled), short pedicellate; STAMINATE FLOWERS 2.3 mm in diameter; tepals 3(-4), with a central nectary, the perianth segments (2-)3-4(-5), each segment bearing a sessile, circular, uniloculate anther; PISTILLATE FLOWERS 1.5 mm in diameter, with a single style and rounded stigma, the perianth segments 2, persistent

Fruit: olive green, 3.5-4.5 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide; bicolored, dehiscing explosively (to 15 m); pedicels curved at maturity; segments; pistillate flower with an inferior ovary, the style unbranched. FRUIT a single-seeded mucilaginous berry. SEED without a thickened seed coat, eaten and distributed primarily by birds or dispersed explosively

Misc: Mixed conifer forests; 1900-3000 m (6300-9800 ft); May-Jun

Notes: HOSTS: Pseudotsuga menziesii, rarely associated with Abies concolor and A. lasiocarpa

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