Parasitic herbs growing on woody plants and absorbing their food from the host plant through specialised roots; leaves opposite, frequently reduced to scales; flowers diœcious or monœcious, regular; in terminal or axillary clusters.

Greenish-yellow or brownish, smooth, fleshy; stems rather slender, numerous, and tufted, forked or branched into 4-angled jointed branches. Leaves reduced to opposite scales at the joints. Flowers very small, the staminate and pistillate on separate plants; staminate plants 2—4 inches long, with the flowers on terminal peduncle-like joints; pistillate plants much smaller and darker coloured; berries ovate, purplish-brown, ⅙ of an inch long.

Throughout the Rockies, parasitic on Pinus Murrayana; locally abundant, appearing in midsummer.