Monographs Details:
Authority:
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Family:
Cuscutaceae
Cuscutaceae
Description:
Genus Description - Twining parasitic herbs, attached to host by haustoria. Leaves alternate, much reduced, scale-like; stipules wanting. Flowers minute, bisexual, actinomorphic, produced in dense headlike or spikelike inflorescences; calyx cup-shaped, with 5 or 4 distinct or connate sepals; corolla white or pink, tubular, with 5 or 4 lobes; stamens 5 or 4, the filaments adnate to the corolla tube, bearing a scale at base within, the anthers opening by longitudinal slits; ovary superior, compound of 2 carpels, each with 2 ovules, the placentation axile, the styles distinct. Fruit a circumscissile, intrastylar or irregularly dehiscent capsule or indehiscent berry; seeds (l-)2-4, per fruit, minute.
Genus Description - Twining parasitic herbs, attached to host by haustoria. Leaves alternate, much reduced, scale-like; stipules wanting. Flowers minute, bisexual, actinomorphic, produced in dense headlike or spikelike inflorescences; calyx cup-shaped, with 5 or 4 distinct or connate sepals; corolla white or pink, tubular, with 5 or 4 lobes; stamens 5 or 4, the filaments adnate to the corolla tube, bearing a scale at base within, the anthers opening by longitudinal slits; ovary superior, compound of 2 carpels, each with 2 ovules, the placentation axile, the styles distinct. Fruit a circumscissile, intrastylar or irregularly dehiscent capsule or indehiscent berry; seeds (l-)2-4, per fruit, minute.