Santalaceae R.Br.

Herbs or shrubs, rarely trees, usually root hemiparasites, occasionally aerial hemiparasites (Dendrotrophe and Phacellaria); nodes not articulated, mostly glabrous, less often hairy, hairs simple. Leaves usually alternate (opposite in Buckleya), sometimes scale-like (absent in Phacellaria); stipules absent; petiole often indistinct; leaf blade simple, usually pinnately veined, sometimes palmately 3-9-veined (in Dendrotrophe), margin entire. Inflorescences mostly axillary, occasionally terminal (in Buckleya), cymose, umbellate, paniculate, racemelike, spicate, or clustered, sometimes 1-flowered; bracts scale-like, small, sometimes forming involucre, sometimes ± adnate to pedicel (in Thesium); bracteoles sometimes present, paired. Flowers bisexual or unisexual (plants usually dioecious, rarely monoecious), actinomorphic, 3-6(-8)-merous, very small; perianth lobes 3-6(-8), slightly fleshy. Male flowers: perianth lobes valvate or slightly imbricate in bud, incurved or patent when flowering, sparsely hairy or with tongue-shaped appendage at the insertion of the stamens. Disk epigynous or perigynous, sometimes absent, margin sinuate or lobed, sometimes distinct, glandular or scaly. Stamens as many as and opposite to perianth lobes, usually on the base of lobes; filaments filiform, short; anthers gynobasic or dorsifixed near base, 2-celled, parallel or divaricate, dehiscence usually longitudinal. Female and bisexual flowers: perianth tube usually longer than that of male. Ovary inferior or half-inferior, 1-or 5-12-loculed; ovules 1-3(-5), anatropous or hemitropous, integument absent. Style 1; stigma capitate, small, truncate or lobed. Fruit a drupe or a nut, exocarp usually fleshy, endocarp crustaceous or bony. Seed 1, without a differentiated testa; endosperm copious, usually white and partitioned, fleshy; embryo cylindric, straight, small, smooth, rugose, or many ridged. 2n = 5, 6, 7, 12, 13+.

Economically, the most important are the fragrant woods of Santalum and Osyris species, particularly Santalum album L. (Indian Sandalwood), S. spicatum (R.Br.) A.DC. (Australian Sandalwood) and Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud. (African Sandalwood) (Christenhusz et al. 2017). Santalum album (Indian Sandalwood) yields an aromatic white timber, and the yellow heartwood and roots are the source of sandal oil used as a body oil, for perfumery and cosmetics as well as a form of incense. Tanning compounds are extracted from Jodina (not in Australia). The fresh leaves of Osyris compressa (P.J.Bergius) A.DC. (syn Colpoon compressum P.J.Bergius) (Cape Sumach, Coast Tannin Bush) in South Africa were used to tan leather a light brown colour, while the bark was used to tan leather dark brown (PlantZAfrica, accessed June 2019). The fruits of a number of species are edible. The fruit of Santalum acuminatum (Sweet Quandong) is used in Australia for jams, jellies and chutneys. The succulent fruiting receptacle of several species of Exocarpos (Ballart), notably E. cupressiformis, is edible, and was used by Australian indigenous peoples and early European settlers. The wood of E. cupressiformis was also used to make spear-throwers as well as bullroarers (Australian Aboriginal Plant Use and Technology pdf). The fruit of Viscum album L. (European Mistletoe, Common Mistletoe), native to Europe, western and southern Asia, is poisonous, and is potentially fatal in a concentrated form. There is extensive mythology and folk medicine based on mistletoes generally and on Viscum album in particular. It is important in northern European culture, folklore and mythology. Species of Viscum and Phoradendron are used as Christmas symbols in Europe and North America respectively (Barlow 1984: 131). Viscum articulatum Burm.f. (Square-stemmed Mistletoe), native to Australia, Papua New Guinea, Malesia to India, has been traditionally used in different parts of the world for treatment of various ailments. It is used in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine for the management of various diseases (Patel & Singh 2018). Patel and Singh (2018) claim that "modern scientific studies demonstrate efficacy of this plant against hypertension, ulcer, epilepsy, inflammation, wound, nephrotoxicity, HIV, cancer, etc."