General description:- Perennial herbs without chlorophyll, parasitic on the roots of other plants.

Flowers:- Unisexual. Perianth consisting of a single, more or less petaloid whorl. Ovary inferior.

Fruit:- A berry.

CYTINUS

General description:- Parasitic (in Europe) on members of the Cistaceae.

Stem:- Simple, stout, with fleshy scale-leaves.

Flowers:- Short stalked (subsessile), in a dense spike, the lower female, the upper male. Perianth tubular, with 4 spreading lobes. Stamens 8, united into a column. Style single; stigma pin-headed (capitate).

Fruit:- Seeds numerous, embedded in a sweet, viscid pulp.