Cuscutaceae
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Cuscutaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Family Description - Fls small, regular, perfect, sympetalous, hypogynous; cal persistent, deeply 4–5-lobed or the sep distinct; cor 4–5-lobed, the lobes imbricate in bud, the typically somewhat fleshy tube usually with a set of small, crenulate or fringed scale-like appendages just beneath (and aligned with) the stamens; the stamens inserted just below the sinuses of the cor, with short filaments; ovary superior, with 2 carpels and locules (the partition sometimes incomplete) and 2 distinct styles; fr a small, membranous, globose or depressed-globose to ovoid capsule or utricle, circumscissile near the base or irregularly dehiscent or indehiscent; seeds 1–4; embryo mostly slender, filiform- cylindric, nearly or quite acotyledonous, peripheral and strongly curved or coiled around the starchy endosperm; slender, twining, achlorophyllous, parasitic annual or infrequently perennial herbs with pinkish-yellow to orange or white, glabrous stems attached to their host by intrusive haustoria, the small terrestrial root-system soon degenerating; lvs alternate, much reduced and scale-like; infls lateral, 1–many-fld, usually compact. Only one genus.
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Common Names
The dodder family