Occurrence of a Hermaphrodite Flower in Arceuthobium minutissimum Hook. f., the Smallest Known Dicotyledonous Plant

Abstract

Arceuthobium minutissimum Hook. f. (Arceuthobieæ), the most minute dicotyledonous plant, is endemic in India, and according to Hooker¹ occurs as a leafless parasite, restricted to a single host-species, Pinus excelsa Wall., in the Kumaon Himalayas at an altitude of 10,700 ft., and exhibits perhaps the highest degree of adaptation to a parasitic mode of life known in the family Loranthaceæ. Turrill² mentions that the whole plant is 2–5 mm. in length. Prof. S. P. Agharkar collected material of the plant from Nepal and Kashmir for my study of its anatomy, while I was working under him in the Botany Department, University of Calcutta, as a Ghose research scholar.