异花寄生藤 yi hua ji sheng teng

Basionym: Viscum platyphyllum Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 4(2): 47. 1827, based on V. latifolium Buchanan-Hamilton ex D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 142. 1825, not Lamarck (1789), nor Swartz (1797); Dendrotrophe heterantha (Wallich ex Candolle) A. N. Henry & B. Roy; Dufrenoya heterantha (Wallich ex Candolle) Chatin; D. platyphylla (Sprengel) Stauffer; Henslowia heterantha (Wallich ex Candolle) J. D. Hooker & Thomson ex A. Candolle; Viscum heteranthum Wallich ex Candolle.

Woody vines, to 2 m tall. Stems erect or twining, 4-ribbed at first, later terete, usually tuberculate and with longitudinally lengthened lenticels. Petiole flat, narrowly winged, short to almost absent; leaf blade varied in shape, usually elliptic-ovate or obovate-elliptic, 2-2.7 × 1.3-1.7(-2) cm, glossy adaxially, tuberculate on both surfaces, basal veins 7-9, usually inconspicuous abaxially, basal 1/2 abruptly narrowed and decurrent into petiole, apex obtuse. Male inflorescences fasciculate, 5- or 6-flowered. Female inflorescences of flowers solitary or 3 or 4 in fascicle; peduncle 3-6 mm; bracts broadly ovate. Flowers ovoid, ca. 1.8 mm, sessile; bracteoles usually several in involucre, elliptic. Male flowers not seen. Female flowers: staminodes sometimes present. Style very short; stigma shallowly 5-lobed. Drupe red or orange, ellipsoid to subglobose, ca. 4 mm in diam.; persistent perianth lobes triangular, apex incurved. Fr. Aug-Oct.

Broad-leaved forests; 2000-3700 m. NW Yunnan [Bhutan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

This species is hemiparasitic on the branches of Quercus.