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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
3. Viscum, Linn
3. Viscum, Linn.
Parasitic shrubs; branches opposite, often dichotomous. Leaves-opposite or none. Flowers diœcious or monœcious, very small, page 622solitary or fascicled in the axils of the leaves or at the nodes of the branches, rarely terminal. Perianth-tube of the male flowers very short and solid, of the females adnate to the ovary; limb 3–4-partite. Anthers as many as the perianth-segments and sessile on them, broadly ovate or oblong, opening by pores on the inner side. Ovary inferior; stigma large, pulvinate, sessile or nearly so. Fruit a 1-seeded berry, usually crowned by the remains of the perianth-segments; mesocarp succulent and viscid. Albumen copious, fleshy; embryos 1 or 2 in each seed.
About 30 species are known, widely spread through the tropical and temperate regions of the Old World.
Joints flat, broadly obovate, ⅕–½ in. long, ⅛–⅓ in. broad. Flowers spicate, the spikes in lateral pairs and 1–3 terminal 1. V. Lindsayi. Joints flat, linear-spathulate, ¼–½ in. long, 1/20–⅛ in. broad. Flowers spicate, the spikes always solitary 2. V. clavatum. Joints terete, 1/10–⅓ in. long, 1/25 in. broad. Flowers sessile, in whorls between the joints 3, V. salicornioides.
| 1. |
V. Lindsayi, Oliver ex Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 108.—A small succulent perfectly glabrous sparingly branched leafless little plant 2–6 in. high; branches opposite, divaricate, jointed; joints much flattened, ⅕–½ in. long, ⅛–⅓ in. broad, broadly obovate to obovate-spathulate, coriaceous, dark-green, often punctate. Spikes usually 2 (rarely 4) to each node and 1 to 3 at the top of the terminal joint, about ¼ in. long, jointed, the tip of each successive joint expanded and enclosing a whorl of 6–10 closely packed flowers. Flowers very minute, diœcious; the males pyriform, of 3 fleshy perianth-segments, each bearing a sessile anther on its inner face; the females of an ovoid ovary crowned by 3–4 perianth-lobes. Fruit obovoid, 1/15 in. long, tipped, by the persistent perianth - lobes.— Lindsay, Contr. N.Z. Bot. 52, t. 2. North Island: Hawke's Bay—Norsewood, Colenso! Patangata, Tryon! South Island: Marlborough—Pelorus Sound, Macmahon! Canterbury—Near Christchurch, Armstrong. Otago—Vicinity of Dunedin, Lindsay, Buchanan! Petrie! Winton, Kirk! October–February. Parasitic on Sophora, Melicope, Myrtus, Metrosideros, Coprosma, Myr-sine, &c. |
| 2. |
V. clavatum, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. sxiv. (1892) 429, t. 37.—Very closely allied to V. Lindsayi, and perhaps only a variety, but a smaller plant, seldom more than 2 in. high, with the joints of the stem much narrower, linear-spathulate, ¼—½ in. long, 1/20–⅛ in. broad. Spikes apparently always solitary, either terminal or from the nodes. Male flowers not seen, but female flowers and fruit quite like those of V. Lindsayi. South Island: Canterbury—Castle Hill Basin, 2000–3000 ft., Enys! Kirk! T. F. C. Parasitic on Aristotelia fruticosa, Discaria, and Coprosma. page 623 |
| 3. |
V. salicornioides, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 485.—A small tufted perfectly glabrous much-branched leafless species 2–4 in. high; branches opposite, rather succulent, terete, jointed; joints 1/10–⅓ in. long, 1/25 in. broad, terete or obscurely flattened, expanded at the tip. Flowers very minute, diœcious, 4–8 together at the nodes, forming a ring round the branch, partly concealed by the expanded tip of the joints. Male flowers much the smallest; perianth-segments 3, triangular, each bearing a sessile anther on its inner face. Female flowers more numerous; ovary ovoid, crowned by 3 very minute perianth-lobes. Fruit 1/20 in. long, ellipsoid, tipped by the persistent perianth-segments.—Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 101; Eandb. N.Z. Fl. 108. North and South Islands: From Mongonui and Kaitaia southwards to Dunedin, but often local. Sea-level to 1500 ft. Usually parasitic on Leptosparmum, but also seen on Gaultheria and Dracophyllum. |