Cuscuta erosa

Kearney and Peebles 1969

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Vine General: Parasitic perennials, plants leafless and rootless, stems yellowish, filiform, twining. Leaves: Plants leafless. Flowers: Minute, to 3 mm long, corolla lobes creamy white, erect to reflexed, about as long or slightly shorter than the campanulate tube, corolla lobes ovate-oblong with obtuse tips, calyx lobes orbicular, membranaceous, denticulate on the margins, fleshier in the median part and nearly distinct, perianth scales broad, fringed, equaling the corolla tube in length and bridged near the middle, stamens inserted in the throat of the corolla, styles 2, longer than the ovary, subulate and becoming divergent in fruit, ovary globose, 2-celled, alternating with the lobes, flowers short-pedicellate, in few to many-flowered cymose clusters. Fruits: Capsule globose, thin towards the base, bearing the withered corolla about the middle or at the top. Ecology: Found in Arizona in Pima county, host plants include Amaranthus, Gomphrena, Kallstroemia, Abutilon, Ipomea, Siphonoglossa, Aniscanthus, and Franseria. Distribution: Arizona; Mexico. Synonyms: None Editor: LCrumbacher2012 Etymology: Cuscuta is a name of Arabic derivation meaning "dodder", and erosa means jagged or bitten off at the edges, as if irregularly gnawed, referring to the ruffled, saw-edged leaf margins.