Cuscuta mexicana

Nomenclature

Accepted name/Authority/Place of publication: 

Cuscuta mexicana Yunck., Mem. Torrey Bot. Club 18: 215. 1932.

Description

Habit: 
Annual; stems 0.4-0.6 mm in diameter, orange.
Inflorescences: 
dense, glomerulate; pedicels 0.5–2 mm; bracts 1 at the base of clusters and 0–1 at the base of pedicels, 1.5–2.6 mm long, broadly ovate, margins entire, apex acute.
Flowers: 
5-merous, 4–6 mm, fleshy, white when fresh, creamy-white or brownish when dried, papillae absent; laticifers not visible; calyx 2.2–3 mm, brownish-yellow, not reticulate or shiny, cupulate, 1/2–3/4 as long as the corolla tube, divided to ca. 1/3 the length, tube 0.6–1 mm, lobes 1.5–2 mm, overlapping, broadly ovate to elliptic, sometimes slightly carinate; margins membranous, entire to irregularly crenulate, apex rounded; corolla 4–5 mm, tube cylindrical to ovoid, 2.5–3 mm, lobes 1.5–2 mm, initially erect, later spreading, somewhat shorter than the tube, broadly ovate, margins entire irregularly crenulate, apex obuse, ± cucullate, without subterminal horn-like projection, 0.2–0.2 mm; stamens not exerted or only slightly so, anthers 0.7–1 x 0.4–0.6 mm, elliptic, filaments 0.4–0.6 mm; infrastaminal scales 1.6–2.8 mm long, 3/4 to ca. equaling the corolla tube, bridged at 0.3–0.5 mm, oblong to obovate, fimbriae vary from 1-seriate, unbranched, 0.2–0.4 mm to 3-4-seriate, dendritically branched and 0.4–0.8 mm; styles 1.8–3 mm, longer to equaling the ovary, thick, cylindric.
Pollen: 
prolate spheroidal to prolate, 21–25 µm, tectum perforate, diameter of puncta 0.2-0.8 µm (corresponds to TP2 type) of Welsh et al. 2010)
Fruits: 
Capsules circumscissile, ovoid, 3.3–4 x 2.8–3.3 mm, thickened but not risen around the inconspicuous interstylar aperture, not translucent, enveloped by the withered corolla.
Seeds: 
1–2 per capsule, 1.8–2.1 x 1.8–2.1 mm, angled to spherical, subround to round, 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; morphotype with dendritic infrastaminal scales; pollen.

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: 

Mexico: Durangoand Jalisco,

Ecology: 

Hosts are not recorded in any of the herbarium
specimens and could not be identified based only on the stems and leaves; elevation 800–2000 m.

Author: 
Mihai Costea

Authorship for webpage

Editor: 
Mihai Costea
Classification: 

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