Atkinsonia ligustrina

Atkinsonia is a hemi-parasitic shrub with oppositely set, entire leaves and yellowish, later rusty-red colored flowers, that is found in Eastern Australia. It is a monotypic genus, the only species being Atkinsonia ligustrina, and is assigned to the showy mistletoe family, Loranthaceae. It is sometimes called Louisa's mistletoe.

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Atkinsonia ligustrina is a stout upright evergreen shrub of 1–2 m high, that parasitises on the roots of other woody plants, but photosynthesises for itself. It has twenty-four chromosomes (2n=24). Roots The primary roots are long-lived, fleshy, bear many scars, and turn blue when damaged. Secondary roots bearing the taproots (or haustoria) are short-lived and devoid of root hairs. Stems and branches There are numerous red–brown branches that split into smooth branchlets that break easily. Leaves The leaves are oppositely set along the branches, but sometimes apparently randomly positioned if some leaves have fallen, are slightly fleshy, spread out, initially bright green and later somewhat more dull green 2–5 cm long, ½–1 cm wide, the downward facing surface felty, an entire margin that has an identical curve from the tapering foot, that ends in an approximately 2 mm long leaf stalk, and a blunt tip at the other side. Flowers The up to eight sweetly scented flowers in each inflorescence are set in racemes in the axils of the leaves, and are almost the same length as the leaves themselves, and appear in November. Each flower has a short stalk, and is subtended by a pair of bracteoles close to the flower, and a third bract further down. The mostly six (sometimes up to eight) petals are spreading narrow strips of approximately 7 mm long, yellow in color, later becoming more rusty red. The anthers are short, pale yellow, and are merged to the petal at the foot. Fruits The drupe-like oval to egg-shaped fruit of about 1½ cm long, is initially green, but develops a red skin when ripe in about March. It hides a thin sticky layer around the seed. The fruits are eaten or shed before the following season's flowerbuds occur.