Cuscuta costaricensis

Nomenclature

Accepted name/Authority/Place of publication: 

CuscutacostaricensisYunck., Mem. Torrey Bot. Club 18: 227. 1932.

Synonyms: 

Cuscuta odontolepis Engelm. var. fimbriata Yunck., Illinois Biol.Monogr. 6(2–3):39.1921.

Description

Habit: 
Annual; stems 0.3-0.6 mm in diameter, yellow or orange.
Inflorescences: 
dense, glomerulate, often confluent; pedicels 0–1.5 mm; bracts 1 at the base of clusters, 0–1 at the base of pedicels, 3–3.5 mm long, broadly triangular (broader than long), margins entire, apex cuspidate.
Flowers: 
5-merous, 4.2–5.5 mm, membranous, white when fresh, creamy-white when dried; papillae present on the calyx and corolla lobes; laticifers visible in the corolla lobes, anthers and sometimes in the infrastaminal scales; calyx 3.2–3.5 mm, straw-yellow, reticulate, not shiny, campanulate, equaling the corolla tube, divided 2/3–3/4, tube 1–1.5 mm, lobes 1.5–2.1 mm, basally overlapping, broadly ovate-triangular, not carinate, margins entire, apex cuspidate; corolla 3.5–4.5 mm, tube 2–3 mm, campanulate, lobes 1.5–2 mm, erect to reflexed, 1/2–1/3 the tube, ovate, overlapping at base, margins entire, apex rounded or obtuse but appearing cuspidate because of a subterminal dorsal cusp, 0.1–0.3 mm long prolonging beyond the apex; stamens barely exserted, shorter than corolla lobes, anthers 0.5–7 × 0.45–0.55 mm, elliptic, filaments 0.3–0.6 mm; infrastaminal scales 2–2.8 mm long, reaching filament bases, bridged at 0.4–0.6 mm, oblong-obovate, dense and long fringed, fimbriae 0.2–0.4 mm; styles 3–3.5 mm, longer than the ovary, evenly filiform.
Fruits: 
Capsules circumscissile, 2.5–4 × 2–3.1 mm, depressed globose, thickened at the apex with large interstylar aperture, translucent, loosely surrounded and capped by the withered corolla.
Seeds: 
Seeds 3–4 per capsule, 1–1.2 × 0.6–0.8 mm, angled, broadly elliptic, seed coat cells alveolate/papillate.
Author: 
Mihai Costea
References: 

Costea, M. 2007-onwards. Digital Atlas of Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae). Wilfrid Laurier University Herbarium, Ontario, Canada. Morphology of type specimen; morphology of additional specimenpollen; living plants.

Costea, M., I.R.Garcia, S. Stefanović. 2011. ‘Horned’dodders: phylogenetic relationships and two new species within Cuscutachapalana complex (Convolvulaceae). Botany, in press.

Yuncker, J. G. 1932. The genus Cuscuta. Mem. Torrey Bot. Club 18:113–331.

Biogeography, Ecology and Natural History

Distribution: 

Mexico,Guatemala, Costa Rica.

Ecology: 

Hosts: Amaranthus, Anoda,
Cologania, Desmodium, Heterosperma, Melampodium, Milleria,
Salvia, Simsia, Tagetes, Xanthocephalum; elevation 1000-2100 m.

Author: 
Mihai Costea

Authorship for webpage

Editor: 
Mihai Costea
Classification: 

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