Cuscuta erosa

Nomenclature

Accepted name/Authority/Place of publication: 

Cuscuta erosa Yunck., Illinois Biol.Monogr. 6 (2–3): 26. 1921.

Description

Habit: 
Annual; stems 0.4-0.6 mm in diameter, yellow to purple.
Inflorescences: 
loose to moderately dense, paniculiform or corymbiform; pedicels 1.5–6 mm; bracts 1 at the base of clusters and 0–1 at the base of pedicels, 0.8–1.9 mm long, ovate-triangular to lanceolate, margins entire to serrulate-denticulate, apex obtuse to acute, sometimes with a subapical horn-like projection.
Flowers: 
5-merous, 3.5–4.5 mm, membranous, creamy to reddish-brown both when fresh and dried; papillae absent; laticifers not visible; calyx 1.5–2.2 mm, yellow, finely reticulate, shiny, cupulate, 3/4 to almost equaling corolla tube, divided 1/2–2/3 of the length, tube 0.5–0.8 mm, lobes 1.2–1.6 mm, basally overlapping, oblong-obovate to orbicular, unevenly carinate, margins membranous and minutely erose or denticulate, apex nearly truncate with a dorsal subapiacal dome-like projection, not exceeding the apex; corolla 3–4 mm, tube 1.5–2.2 mm, campanulate, sometimes with horizontal ridges between stamen attachments, lobes 1.2–1.6 mm, erect to spreading or reflexed, ovate-oblong, margins entire to denticulate, apex obtuse, cucullate, often with a dorsal subapical horn-like appendage, 0.1–0.2 mm long; stamens exserted, shorter than the corolla lobes, anthers 0.7–1 x 0.4–0.5 mm, ovate to oblong, filaments 0.4–1 mm; infrastaminal scales 1.5–2 mm long, 3/4 to almost equaling corolla tube, bridged at 0.4–0.6 mm, oblong to almost truncate, dense and long fringed, fimbriae 0.2–0.4 mm; styles 1.8–3.2 mm, longer than the ovary, thick and ± subulate, wider at the base and tapering toward the stigma.
Fruits: 
Capsules circumscissile, 2–2.5 × 2.2–2.5 mm, globose, thickened but not risen around the inconspicuous interstylar aperture, not translucent, carrying the withered corolla about the middle or at the top.
Seeds: 
1–4 per capsule, 0.94–1.45 x 0.8–1.38 mm, angled, subround to ovate, seed coat cells alveolate/papillate.
Author: 
Mihai Costea
References: 

Costea, M. 2007-onwards. Digital Atlas of Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae). Wilfrid Laurier University Herbarium, Ontario, Canada. Flower morphologypollen.

Costea, M., I.R.Garcia, S. Stefanović. 2011. ‘Horned’dodders: phylogenetic relationships and two new species within Cuscuta chapalana 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: 

U.S.A.: Arizona; Mexico: Baja California, Sonora,Sinaloa.

Ecology: 

Hosts:
Abutilon, Amaranthus, Ambrosia, Anisacanthus, Bidens, Carlowrightia, Euphorbia, Gomphrena, Hymenoclea, Ipomoea,Jatropha,
Justicia, Kallstroemia, Merremia, Mimosa, Ruella, Russelia, Sphinctospermum, Talinum, Tephrosia; elevation 400-1300 m

Author: 
Mihai Costea

Authorship for webpage

Editor: 
Mihai Costea
Classification: 

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