Compilation
Cuscuta epithymum

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Name

Identification
Cuscuta epithymum Yunck. [family CONVOLVULACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Data not digitized, Cuscuta epithymum Yunck. [family CONVOLVULACEAE ] Verified by Data not digitized,
Related name
  • Cuscuta schiraziana
  • Cuscuta alba
  • Cuscuta triumvirati
  • Cuscuta epithymum
  • Cuscuta cassiopes
  • Cuscuta microcephala
  • Cuscuta ericae
  • Cuscuta kotschyi
  • Cuscuta approximata
  • Cuscuta stenoloba
  • Cuscuta zizyphi-loti
  • Cuscuta planiflora

Flora

Entry for Cuscuta epithymum [family CONVOLVULACEAE]
Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Flora of Southern Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Names
Cuscuta epithymum [family CONVOLVULACEAE]
Information
Stems very slender, often reddish or purplish. Flowers ± 3 mm long, in dense many-flowered clusters, often reddish. Calyx usually ± as long as corolla tube; lobes triangular, acute. Corolla: lobes triangular, acute, spreading, shorter than tube. Stamens shorter than corolla lobes; fila­ments longer than anthers. Scales ± spathulate; shorter than corolla tube, fringed mainly in upper part, free at apex. Ovary globose; stigmas filiform, slightly longer than styles, together almost twice as long as ovary. Capsule globose, circumscissile near base. Seeds usually 4, ovoid, ± 1 mm long, rather rugose, angular, compressed, oblong, transverse, hilum short. Flowering time January to May.
Habitat
Said to have medicinal properties (Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk 1962: 306). It does not appear to be such a serious pest as Cuscuta campestris (no. 3).
Use
15. *Cuscuta epithymum Murray in L., Systema vegetabilium ..., 13th edn: 140 (1774); Yunck.: 283, fig. 151 (1932); A.Meeuse: 656 (1957a); Retief & P.PJ.Herman: 381 (1997). Type: if the Pinax (p. 219) of Bauhin (1671) is taken as the iconotype (Yunck. 1932: 283), there may be a specimen (prototype) in the Bauhin Herbarium in Basle, probably from Switzerland.
Range
A native of Europe, but spread with com­merce throughout the world. Hosts: a great variety of herbaceous and shrubby plants, but outside its natural area of distribution chiefly on leguminous crops, e.g. Medicago sativa. Its establishment in a certain area seems to be the result of contaminated imported seed rather than the survival or dispersal of already established populations. It seems to be absent from hot and dry areas. In southern Africa this species has been recorded occasionally in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape, the first records dating from about 1894. Map 11.

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