Dendrophthoe neelgherrensis (Wight & Arn.) Tiegh. in Bull. Soc. Bot. France 42: 252. 1895. Loranthus neelgherrensis Wight & Arn., Prodr. Fl. Ind. Orient. 1: 382. 1834; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 216. 1886.

Branches terete, knotty at nodes; branching pseudo-dichotomous, sometimes terminal branching in whorls of 3. Leaves opposite, sessile, elliptic-ovate, obtuse, acute or cuneate at base, undulate along margins, 5 - 12 x 2 - 4 cm, crustaceous; lateral nerves 2 or 3 pairs. Inflorescences axillary, ramiflorous, centrifugal pseudo-racemose; peduncles 2 or 3 in each axil, 3 - 5-flowered, 3 - 10 mm long. Flowers actinomorphic, ca 2 cm long; pedicels 1.7 - 2 mm long; bracts ovate-cymbiform, encircling ovary, 1 - 1.5 x 0.7 - 0.9 mm. Calyculus-tube cupular, usually toothed, ca 0.6 mm long. Petals 5, united; tube slightly gibbous at base, equally split nearly up to middle, 8 - 15 mm long, dark red or dull white; lobes 5, linear-elliptic, ca 6 x 1 mm. Stamens 5; filaments 4 - 5 mm long, all dark red or greenish white; anthers linear-oblong, 2.5 - 3 mm long, broader than filaments, reddish or yellowish. Ovary asymmetric, 2 - 2.5 mm long; style terete or tetragonous; stigma obovoid, lobed, ca 1 mm long. Fruits obovoid, smooth, glabrous, with persistent margined calyculus-tube, 9 - 10 x 5.5 - 6 mm.

Fl. & Fr. Sept. - Dec. (or sometimes throughout the year).

Distrib. India: Along the fringes of Shola forests at 1500 - 2000 m altitudes, on a variety of hosts. Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Sri Lanka.

Notes. Wood reddish brown; pores very small, diffuse porous, vessel pitting scalariform, parenchyma paratracheal; rays short, broad, evenly spaced; fibres excessively thick-walled, narrow lumened.

Pollen 3-lobed, occasionally 4-lobed; P - 22 (26.4) 33 μm; E - 45 (53.4) 59 μm; P/E - 0.57 μm; ex. 2 μm; col. 1 μm (Vasanthy, Inst. Franc. Pondicherry. 1976).

Chromosome number: n = 9 (Barlow & Wiens, Flinders Univ. S. Austr. Sch. Biol. Sci. Bedford Park, 1971).