Cuscuta exaltata

Stems greenish yellow to purple, spotted, coarse. Inflorescences spikes, racemes, or loose panicles with 1–3(–5)-flowered cymes, flowers sessile or short-pedicellate; bracts at base of clusters and pedicels 1, ovate, margins entire, apex obtuse. Pedicels 0–2 mm. Flowers 5-merous, 4–5 mm, thick and fleshy, not papillate; calyx yellow-brown, globose-campanulate, equaling corolla tube length, divided 2/3 its length, not reticulate or shiny, lobes ovate to orbiculate, bases overlapping, margins entire, partly hyaline, midvein sometimes ± carinate or thickened, apex rounded; corolla white, drying yellow-brown, 3.8–4.8 mm, tube cylindric-campanulate, 2.8–3.5 mm, not saccate, lobes erect to spreading, ovate to suborbiculate, 1/4–1/3 tube length, margins entire, apex rounded; infrastaminal scales oblong to ovate, 1.5–2 mm, 1/2–2/3 corolla tube length, bridged at 0.5–1 mm, 2-fid or with coarse fimbriae distally, 0.1–0.4 mm; stamens included, shorter than corolla lobes; filaments 0.1–0.3 mm; anthers 0.3–0.5 × 0.3–0.5 mm; styles 1, sometimes distally 2-fid or separating into 2 when pulled apart, 1–1.2 mm, ± equaling or longer than ovary, longer than stigmas; stigmas depressed-globose, 0.1–0.5 mm. Capsules globose-ovoid to conic, 5–7(–10) × 3–5(–6) mm, not translucent, capped by withered corolla. Seeds 4, angled, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid or obovoid, 3–3.9 × 2.2–2.5 mm, hilum area lateral.

Phenology: Flowering May–Oct.
Habitat: Hosts: Diospyros, Juglans, Quercus, Rhus, Ulmus, Vitis, and other woody plants.
Elevation: 0–500 m.

Fla., Tex.

Discussion

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa