Viscum combreticola

Viscum combreticola is a leafless, parasitic shrub that grows 2 m tall and wide on a variety of host plants, often Combretum and some Vachellia and Senegalia trees.

The young stems are yellowish green, strongly ribbed and flattened, but becoming rounded and pendulous when older. The brittle stems exude a watery sap where the bark is broken.

Male and female flowers grow on separate plants, the plant being dioecious. The fruits are globose berries that appear in pairs at stem segment joints. They are orange coloured with tubercles on the surface that disappear as they ripen.

The species distribution is in the provinces north of the Vaal River and the Free State, most in Limpopo. The plant is rare on the Witwatersrand, becoming more common to the north where it is common in tropical Africa. The plant is variable, but in a random way, not related to its geographical distribution. 

The plant grows in bushveld and woodland. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Tree Society of Southern Africa, 1974; www.ville-ge.ch; http://redlist.sanbi.org).