''Socratina'' is genus of three showy mistletoe species in

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. The genus was described by the Belgian botanist Simone Balle in Flora de Madagascar, 1964, and was revised by Martin Callmander and co-workers in 2014. It contains three species. * ''Socratina bemarivensis'' (Lecomte) S.Balle * ''Socratina kerauderiana'' S.Balle * ''Socratina phillipsoniana'' Callm. & Luino 'Socratina' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of mistletoes endemic to

, comprising three recognized species: 'Socratina bemarivensis, Socratina kerauderiana, and Socratina phillipsoniana.' The genus was first described by Belgian botanist Simone Balle in 1964, and later revised by Martin Callmander and colleagues in 2014. These species are notable for their parasitic lifestyle, attaching to host trees and

shrubs A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

in Madagascar's unique ecosystems. The genus Socratina is characterized by features such as articulated shoots at the nodes, opposite leaves that can be normal or reduced to scales, and unisexual flowers, indicating that the plants are either monoecious or dioecious. The floral structure includes an undifferentiated perianth with 2 to 4

tepals A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of ve ...

, and the pollen is subcircular in polar view. These morphological traits place Socratina within the family

Loranthaceae Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites. The three terrestrial species are '' Nuytsia floribunda'' (the ...

, which encompasses a diverse group of parasitic plants commonly known as mistletoes. The genus's unique adaptations reflect its specialized ecological niche in Madagascar's flora.https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/849166-Socratina

References

Loranthaceae Loranthaceae genera {{Santalales-stub