Genera Included: Monogeneric - Misodendrum.
Habit: Aerial "shrubs"
Parasitism: All hemiparasites on the southern beech (Notofagus)
Roots: Haustoria form a cup-like placental region in zone of contact with the host
Stem: twigs stout, the apex aborting at the end of each growing season; the next season's growth continuing from lateral buds.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, entire (?), sometimes reduced to scales.
Inflorescence: Catkin-like, in compound racemes and spikes.
Plant Sex: Dioecious
Flowers: Unisexual; pistillate flowers monochamydous, apparently
hypogynous; staminate flowers lacking a perianth entirely.
Calyx: Tepals 3 in pistillate flowers, adnate to the ovary but free from
one another except at the base.
Corolla: Absent
Nectary: Present in staminate flower as a small, lobed disk.
Androecium: 2-3 stamens; anthers bisporangiate, monothecal, opening by
terminal slits.
Staminodia: Present, alternating with perianth members in pistillate
flowers; accrescent.
Pollen: 4-12 colporate.
Gynoecium: Compound, composed of 3 carpels, unilocular, with a short,
stout style capped by a 3-lobed stigma.
Ovule: Three ovules in the locule, pendulous from the top of a
free-central placenta; ovule not differentiated into nucellus and
integuments.
Embryo, etc.: Embryology like some members of Olacaceae; endosperm
development cellular.
Fruit: An achene or small nut, crowned by the accrescent, feathery staminodes which aid in wind dispersal.
Seed: Solitary, without a testa; endosperm oily, chlorophyllous (evolved independently from Viscaceae? Yes according to Kuijt 1968); embryo straight.
Chromosomes: