Observations on establishment and early shoot emergence of Viscum minimum (Viscaceae)

Viscum minimum Harvey (Viscaceae), a parasite limited to very few succulent species of Euphorbia, has a germination pattern which closely resembles that of Arceuthohium of the same family, in that germination is cryptocotylar, the shoot apex eventually aborting. As in Arceuthohium, the great majority of aerial shoots are produced from the endophyte but, unlike that genus, aerial shoots may in V. minimum also be produced from the margin of the haustorial disk, or even from directly below it. V. minimum is heterophyllous.