Taxillus recurvus (Wall. ex DC.) Tiegh. in Bull. Soc. Bot. France 42: 256. 1895. Loranthus recurvus Wall. ex DC., Prodr. 4: 299. 1830; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 213. 1886.

Branches covered with rusty brown abietiform hairs intermixed with stellate hairs when young, glabrous when old; nodes prominently raised, meristematically knotty. Leaves alternate, elliptic-ovate or obovate, cuneate or rounded at base, slightly decurrent into petioles, 3 - 7 x 1.3 - 3.5 cm, coriaceous, densely hairy when young, glabrous above and densely or sparsely stellate hairy beneath when old; lateral nerves 2 or 3 pairs; petioles 8 - 10 mm long. Inflorescences axillary and ramiflorous, simple dichasia, sessile or shortly peduncled; peduncles 2 or 3 in each axil, 3 (or 4)-flowered, elongating at fruiting stage, 2 - 3 mm long; flower buds 1.5 - 1.8 cm long, stellate hairy. Flowers 5-merous, 2 - 2.5 cm long; pedicels 3 - 3.5 mm long; bracts ovate, clasping nearly three-fourth of the ovary, 3 - 3.2 x 2.8 - 3 mm. Calyculus distinct, irregularly 5-lobed. Petals 5, united; tube ventricose at base, 1 - 1.3 mm long; lobes 5, linear-elliptic, 4 - 5 mm long. Stamens 5; filament, 1.3 - 1.5 cm long; anthers linear-ovate. Ovary subturbinate, 3 - 3.5 mm long; style 4-gonous; stigma subcapitate, bilobed. Fruits urceolate, smooth, crowned with calyculus, 6 - 7 x 3 - 3.5 mm, hairy to glabrous.

Fl. & Fr. Nov. - May.

Distrib. India: Western Ghats in shola forests, above 2000 m altitude, found on a limited number of hosts, which are either shrubs or small trees, along fringes of forests and in open forests. Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Endemic.

Notes. Vessels with lateral perforations, pitting alternate; fibres thick-walled, broad- lumened, pits with reduced slit.

Pollen 3-lobed; P - 31 (33.3) 38 µm; E - 56 (50.1) 62 µm; P/E - 0.56 µm; ex. 2 µm; col 1 µm.