Dwarf mistletoe
This is the smallest species of plant in Taiwan that is parasitic on tree trunks. Due to its extremely small size it is known as a dwarf mistletoe. It is an evergreen small parasitic shrub with green branches that are opposite, flat, and possess nodes. The upper and lower nodes are located along the same plane. The leaves have degenerated into scales and are opposite the nodes, resembling cypress branches and leaves. The flowers are unisexual, monoecious, solitary or in dense umbels, yellowish-green. The berries are obovate with fleshy and sticky mesocarp.
One of its more unique characteristics is that the haustorium, used to invade the host, is green. An endophytic system develops in the host plant with the potential to stretch far. Emerging from the surface of the host and growing another branch and scales, it appears to be a different individual, when in actually it is part of the same parasitic plant.
