Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Vine

General: Parasitic herbaceous perennials, stems yellowish, slender and filiform, usually much-branched, twining around herbaceous or woody hosts, rootless except in the seedling state, obtaining nutrients by deeply penetrating sucker-like organs, (haustoria).

Leaves: Reduced to small, functionless scales.

Flowers: Small, corollas campanulate to cylindrical and 5-lobed, most 2-6 mm long, calyx shallowly to deeply 5-lobed, stamens inserted on the corolla tube opposite the corolla lobes, styles 2, distinct, stigmas capitate, flowers borne in loose to dense cymose clusters, sessile or on short pedicels.

Fruits: Capsule. Seeds 1-4.

Ecology: Unknown

Distribution: Arizona, New Mexico.

Notes: This parasitic species appears as a mass of yellow, thread-like stems growing on other plants (usually in the uppermost portion). The parasite is usually very firmly attached when alive, but becomes easy to remove and brittle when dead. Kearney and Peebles and McDougall used for genus description only.

Ethnobotany: There is no use recorded for this species, but other species in this genus have uses.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher 2012

Etymology: Cuscuta is a name of Arabic derivation meaning "dodder", while the meaning of potosina refers to San Luis Potosi, Mexico.