Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Notothixos subaureus

Common name

Golden mistletoe

Family

Santalaceae

Where found

Mainly on other mistletoes. Coastal areas. Ranges inland from Batemans Bay.

Notes

Erect, spreading, or weeping shrub to 0.6 m diameter. Plants attached to the host by a bulbous union. External runners absent. Fruit fleshy. Stems covered in mostly bright golden, rarely greyish or silvery, branched hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves opposite or almost opposite each other, mostly 1–5 cm long, 10–20 mm wide, upper surface green and sometimes shining, lower surface densely hairy, yellow to golden, tips rounded, blunt, or pointed with a short blunt mucro. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers yellowish, 1-2 mm long, with 4 'petals'. Flower sub-clusters usually in 3s, each sub-cluster of 5–11 flowers, the central 1–5 flowers usually male. Flowering: throughout the year. Fruit yellow, hairy, oval to almost round, 4.5-8 mm long.

Family Viscaceae in PlantNET.

Rare Vic.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Notothixos~subaureus  (accessed 20 April 2021)