Giant Dodder

Hosts: Artemisia, Vicia, Ziziphus, Parrotiopsis, Spiraea, Abutilon, Acacia nilotiea, Salix, Viburmum, Clematis, Euphorbia and Dalbergia sissoo.

This species is closely related to Cuscuta lehmanniana but it can be separated on the basis of its capsule which is small and not definitely circumscissile. However, Yuncker (l.c.) in the description of Cuscuta reflexa indicates that the capsule is circumscissile with a definite line of cleavage. We have examined a large number of specimens belonging to this species, but unable to see any circumscissile capsule with difinite line of cleavage. Pedicel is mostly 0.5-2 mm long, but in one specimen Stewart 19584 (RAW), is up to 7 mm long.

Stem thick, branched, glabrous, or slightly pubescent, mostly not interlaced, succulent, light brown to dark brown. Leaves persistent, cup-shaped, fleshy, margin scarious, obovate obtuse, 1-2.0 x c.1.0 mm. Flowers arranged in paniculate cymes, ivory white, pedicellate, 5.5-7.5 mm long; pedicel 0.5-2.0 (-7) mm long, or obsolete; bracts leaf-like. Calyx lobes 5, fleshy, margin scarious, rounded ovate-obtuse, deeply divided overlapping at the base, 0.7-3.0 x 1.5-2.5 mm, tube c. 1 mm long. Corolla lobes 5, ivory white, obtuse, upright, spreading or reflexed, 1-1.5 x 0.5-0.7 mm; corolla tube 2-3 mm long; scales scarious, reaching the middle of the corolla tub, fringed, c. 1 mm long. Stamens 5, filaments linear, 2-3 mm long, fused filaments prominent like a vein in the petal; anther oblong, basifixed, 1-1.5 mm long. Ovary conical, fleshy, 1-2 mm long; style 1, thick, c. 0.5 mm long, or obsolete stigmas 2, unequal, conical to elongated, dark brown, 0.7-1.0 stun long; ovules 4, oblong-elliptical, c. 0.3 x c. 0.2 mm. Capsule 1-3 x 2-3 mm, globose-conical, brown, not depressed, without intrastylar opening, not circumscissile with a definite line of cleavage, i.e. dehiscing irregularly with remains of sepal lobes below, style and stigma at the top.

Stems yellow or yellowish green, stout, 2-3 mm in diam., with brown spots. Inflorescences lateral, few to many flowered, in racemes or panicles 1.5-3 cm, branched; bracts and bractoles scalelike. Pedicel 2-4 mm, together with peduncle, brown spotted or tuberculate. Calyx cupular; sepals 5, broadly ovate, equal, 2-2.5 mm, with a few tubercles abaxially, apex rotund. Corolla white or creamy, fragrant, tubular, 5-9 mm; lobes early deciduous, often reflexed, sometimes erect, triangular-ovate, shorter than tube. Stamens inserted at throat; filaments shorter than anthers or absent; anthers elliptic-ovate; scales oblong, reaching middle of tube, short and densely fimbriate. Ovary ovate-conical. Style 1, very short or absent; stigma divergent or erect, elongated, ligulate, longer than style. Capsule conical-globose, subquadrate when mature, 5-10 mm in diam., circumscissile. Seeds 1-4, dark brown, oblong, ca. 4 mm. 2n = 28, 32, 36, 42.

Distribution: Afghanistan, throughout northern India to Yunnan (China), Java and in Ceylon.

Hunan, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Thailand]

On shrubs; 900-2800 m.

Cuscuta reflexa, the giant dodder or ulan ulan, is one of 100-170 species in the genus Cuscuta, and is common in the Indian subcontinent and the Greater Himalayas and as far south as Malaysia and Indonesia. This parasitic plant species is a leafless twined sprawling thin vine that grows over a host plant, including large trees with garlands hanging down from the canopy as much as 10 metres (33 ft). Flowers are small, bell shaped and white in colour with yellow filaments. Fruits and seeds are produced from the flower.