Flowers and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Ripe fruit and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Green fruit and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Plants. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Common Name

Harlequin Mistletoe

Family

Loranthaceae

Notes

Mistletoe.  On several species of Casuarina, and on Geijera parviflora and other host species. Leaves opposite each other or sometimes clustered, 3-15cm long, 1-10mm wide, flat to flattened cylindrical, hairless.  Flowers red or yellow, sometimes greenish or black at the tips, tubular, with 6 lobes, in pairs or 3's on a short common stem arising from the bases of the leaves.  Ripe fruit red or black.

Description and photo in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 223.  Ssp. diamantinensis has been subsumed into ssp. exocarpi.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=in&name=Lysiana~exocarpi~subsp.+exocarpi