盖裂寄生科又名多室花科，共有3属7种，都是生长在中美洲和南美洲北部的寄生植物，是当地的特有品种。

盖裂寄生科植物的茎通常为肉质，棒状，浅黄色或淡褐色。叶鳞片状，没有叶绿素，一般寄生在铁线莲属、大戟属和某些木本菊科植物的根上。

1981年的克朗奎斯特分类法将本科放到唇形目中，1998年根据基因亲缘关系分类的APG 分类法和2003年经过修订的APG II 分类法将这些属合并到紫草科中，为盖裂寄生亚科，不属于任何一个目，直接放到I类真菊分支下面。

Lennooideae is a subfamily of parasitic flowering plants of south-western North America and north-western South America.

The relationships of this subfamily to other plants remain uncertain. It was traditionally treated at family rank as Lennoaceae, and placed in different orders by different authors, including Lamiales (in the Cronquist system) and Solanales (Dahlgren system). More recently, molecular phylogenetic publications grouped it within the clade "Euasterids I", and most recently, it was demoted to a subfamily of the Boraginaceae family in the APG II system.