The cherry ballart superficially resembles the
cypress. It is a large shrub or small tree, tall, often pyramidal in shape. There are no authoritative published accounts of its host plants or parasitism, with most sources being
anecdotal. In the early stages of development, like many members of Santalaceae,
E. cupressiformis are hemiparasitic on the roots of other trees, particularly eucalypts. This parasitism thrives in shallow soils. Mature plants are less reliant on this parasitism due to the
photosynthetic structures in their stems being better established. The leaves are reduced to small scales, and the green, drooping stems are the site of photosynthesis. Its inconspicuous flowers are arranged in clusters on short spikes 3–6 mm long. Only one flower on each spike forms a fruit. The inedible fruit is a globular, hard, greenish nut, 4-6mm long, containing one seed. It is found on top of a short
pedicel. As the fruit develops, the pedicel swells to 5-6mm in diameter and turns yellow or red, forming the edible "cherry". The fruits lack the hard stones characteristic to the unrelated European
cherry. The true, seed-like fruit (actually a nut containing the seed, like the acorn) is found on the outside of the fleshy false "fruit" (actually a swollen pedicel), hence the
genus name Exocarpos, from
Ancient Greek ἔξω (
éxō), meaning "outside", and καρπός (
karpós), meaning "fruit", and thus, "outside fruit". ==Habitat==