Plant: aerial parasitic shrub; 2-25 cm high, glabrous, dioecious; SHOOTS: 10-30(-50) cm high, 3-10 mm wide at base, bright orange, reddish, dark brown or black, densely branched, usually erect Leaves: reduced to minute scales Inflorescence: axillary spikes Flowers: decussate (sometimes whorled), short pedicellate; staminate flowers 3.5 mm long, to 3.5 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 with a single style and rounded stigma, the perianth segments 2, persistent Fruit: 4-6 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, elliptic to obovate, 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 Notes: parasitic on Pinaceae REFERENCES: Hawksworth, Frank G. 1994. Viscaceae. J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27(2), 241-245.