Parasitic, usually glabrous, slender, twining, yellowish annuals
Leaves
rudimentary
Flowers
clustered, whitish or rose-coloured
Calyx
with shortly campanulate tube, (4)5-lobed or -segmented
Corolla
with campanulate, urceolate, ovoid, or globose tube, with membranous, fimbriated or toothed scales within, alternating with lobes; lobes (4)5, as long as or shorter than tube
Ovary
subglobose, completely or partly 2-locular, with 2 ovules in each locule; styles 2, free or connate at base; stigmas clavate, cylindric or capitate
Fruit
a globose or ovoid, dry or fleshy capsule, circumscissile or irregularly dehiscent
Seeds
somewhat convex on one side and flattish on other
x = 7 (15, 8) (aneuploids, polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Cuscuta
L.
Linnaeus: 124 (1753)
Yuncker: 113 (1932)
Meeuse: 644 (1957)
Meeuse & Welman: 3 (2000)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 140, cosmopolitan in warmer regions
Southern Africa
: Species 15, widespread in all regions except arid areas, including 3 introductions
References:
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
MEEUSE, A.D.J. 1957. The South African
Convolvulaceae
.
Bothalia
6
MEEUSE, A.D.J. & WELMAN, W.G. 2000.
Convolvulaceae
.
Flora of southern Africa
28,1
YUNCKER, T.G. 1932. The genus
Cuscuta
.
Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club
18,2
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