PLANTS: Aerial shrubs parasitic on Pinaceae, 2-25 em high, glabrous, dioecious. SHOOTS: variously colored, greenish-yellow to orange, reddish, and black, quadrangular, at least when young. LEAVES: reduced to minute scales. INFLORESCENCE: of axillary spikes. FLOWERS: decussate (sometimes whorled), short pedicellate; staminate flowers with a central nectary, the perianth segments (2-)3-4(-5), each segment bearing a sessile, circular, uniloculate anther; pistillate flowers with a single style and rounded stigma, the perianth segments 2, persistent. FRUIT: mostly 3-5 mm long, bicolored, dehiscing explosively (to 15 m); pedicels curved at maturity. NOTES: 33 spp. in U.S. and Mex., 8 in the Old World. (Greek: Arceuthos = juniper + bios-living). Hawksworth, F.G., & D., Wiens. 1972. Biology and Classification of Dwarf Mistletoes (Arceuthobium). U.S.D.A. Agricultural Handbook 401. REFERENCES: Hawksworth, Frank G. 1994. Viscaceae. J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27(2), 241-245.