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Lennoaceae

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	unassigned
Family:	Lennoaceae Solms-Laubach

Genera

Ammobroma
Lennoa
Pholisma

Lennoaceae is a family of parasitic flowering plants of south-western North America and north-western South America.

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The relationships of this family with other plants remain uncertain, and the family has been placed in different orders by different authors, including Lamiales (in the Cronquist system) and Solanales (Dahlgren system). Molecular phylogenetic publications have grouped the Lennoaceae within the clade "Euasterids I", and most recently, it was subsumed into the family Boraginaceae in the APG II system ^[1].

The family has a disjunct distribution, occurring in Colombia as well as a separate area in south-western North America, covering parts of California, Arizona and Mexico ^[2].

The family comprises up to three genera, Ammobroma, Lennoa and Pholisma, which between them hold around five species, including the desert christmas tree, Pholisma arenarium and sandfood, Pholisma sonorae ^[3].

Members of this family are succulent, herbaceous plants with no chlorophyll ^[4]. The leaves are reduced to short scales, and the plants are entirely parasitic on the roots of their hosts, which are typically Clematis, Euphorbia, and various woody Compositae ^[4].

References

^ Friedrich A. Lohmüller (2005). Lennoaceae. The Botanical System of the Plants.
^ Dan Nickrent (2006-02-25). Lennoaceae. The Parasitic Plant Connection. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
^ Pholisma. PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.
^ ^a ^b L. Watson & M. J. Dallwitz (2007-06-01). Lennoaceae Solms-Laubach. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval.