Lennoaceae
Lennoaceae is a family in the order Boraginales. Its members are parasitic flowering plants of southwestern North America and northwestern South America. It has also been treated as the subfamily Lennooideae of the family Boraginaceae s.l.
Description
Members of this family are succulent, herbaceous plants with no chlorophyll. The leaves are reduced to short scales, and the plants are entirely parasitic on the roots of their hosts, which are typically Clematis, Euphorbia or various woody Asteraceae.Taxonomy
The relationships of this family to other plants has been uncertain. It was traditionally treated at family rank as Lennoaceae, and placed in different orders by different authors, including Lamiales and Solanales. More recently, molecular phylogenetic publications grouped it within the clade "Euasterids I", and in the APG II system, it was demoted to a subfamily of the family Boraginaceae. In 2016, the Boraginales Working Group revived Lennoaceae., the family was accepted by World Flora Online.Genera
, World Flora Online accepted two genera:The two genera have around four species, including the desert Christmas tree, Pholisma arenarium, and sandfood, Pholisma sonorae.