Santalaceae
A natural order of trees, shrubs, or dwarf herbs, a few of which are parasitic on trees or roots; they are broadly dispersed over tropical and temperate regions. Flowers greenish, yellowish-green, or rarely orange, usually small, but in a few instances conspicuous, hermaphrodite or dioecious, or rarely monoecious by abortion. regular; perianth simple, green or corolla-like, sometimes slightly fleshy, adnate to the disk or to the base of the ovary, four, five, or rarely three or six-lobed, valvate or rarely loosely imbricated; stamens (except in Grubbia) as many as the perianth lobes; filaments filiform or rather broad, sometimes very short; style cylindrical, conical or shortened; bracteoles usually two; inflorescence variable. Fruit indehiscent, nut-like or often drupaceous. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire, sometimes scale-like; stipules none. The order comprises twenty-eight genera, and nearly 220 species. Illustrative genera are: Exocarpus, Grubbia, Santalum and Thesium.