Cuscuta japonica

Stems yellow-orange, often with purple spots, medium to coarse. Inflorescences spikes, racemes, or loose panicles, with 1–3(–7)-flowered cymes, flowers sessile or subsessile; bracts at base of clusters and flowers 1(or 2), broadly ovate, membranous, margins entire, apex obtuse. Pedicels 0–1 mm. Flowers 5-merous, 3–7 mm, fleshy, not papillate; calyx creamy white, drying yellow-brown, cupulate, 1/3–1/2 corolla tube length, divided 2/3 its length, not reticulate or shiny, lobes orbiculate to ovate, bases overlapping, margins entire, not partly hyaline, midvein carinate or not, apex acute to obtuse; corolla greenish white to pink, drying creamy yellow, 2.6–6.8 mm, tube cylindric, 2–4.3 mm, not saccate, lobes erect to spread­ing, ovate to ovate-triangular, 1/3–1/2 tube length, mar­gins irregularly crenulate or entire, apex rounded to obtuse; infrastaminal scales oblong to ovate, 1.8–2.8 mm, 1/2 to equaling corolla tube length, bridged at 0.4–0.1 mm, rounded, with dense, thin fimbriae, 0.1–0.3 mm on margins; stamens included, shorter than corolla lobes; filaments 0–0.1 mm; anthers 0.6–1.1 × 0.5–0.7 mm; styles 1, not distally 2-fid or separable, 1–1.6 mm, equaling or longer than ovary, longer than stigma; stigmas globose, ellipsoid, ovoid, obovoid, conic, or ± cuboid, 0.1–0.6 mm. Capsules ovoid to helmet-shaped, 4.5–5.5(–7) × 3–3.6(–5) mm, not trans­lucent, capped by withered corolla. Seeds 1–3, broadly ellipsoid to obovoid, slightly obcompressed, 2.5–2.8 × 1.1–1.7 mm, hilum region terminal.

Distribution

Introduced; e Asia.

Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Cuscuta japonica var. formosana, Cuscuta japonica var. japonica

Key

1	Corollas 3–5 mm; stigmas conic, ellipsoid, glo­bose, obovoid, or ovoid.	Cuscuta japonica var. japonica
1	Corollas 4–7 mm; stigmas ± cuboid.	Cuscuta japonica var. formosana