Cuscuta umbellata

Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Vine General: Parasitic perennial forb with slender but profuse stems, twining or trailing, yellow-orange Leaves: Reduced to scales or not present. Flowers: Glabrous or slightly puberulent, 4-6 mm long, pentamerous, on pedicels 2-8 mm long, forming dense compound cymes; calyx turbinate, lobes as long as or longer than campanulate corolla, acute to acuminate; corolla lobes equal corolla tube, oblong to lancolate, acute to acuminate, usually reflexed; campanulate corolla almost colorless, whitish.  Fruits: Depressed-globose capsule, with ring of low, road, rounded tubercules about intrastylar aperture, circumscissile, whithering corolla in fruit. Ecology: Found on various hosts, mostly herbaceous. Distribution: AZ, CO, NM, TX, KS, LO; south to S. Amer. Notes: Parasitic on Polygonum, Atriplex, Suaeda, Alternanthera, Amaranthus, Boerhavia, Trianthema, Kallstroemia, Tribulus, Euphorbia, and other taxa. Ethnobotany: Unknown for this species, but other species in this genera have many uses. Etymology: Cuscuta is the name of an Arabic derivation meaning dodder, umbellata refers to the form of the flowers. Synonyms: Cuscuta umbellata var. reflexa, Grammica umbellata Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015