Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Vine

General: Perennial holoparasitic vines, stems light yellow to orange, glabrous, thread-like and forming small to large mats atop hosts, generally not in contact with the ground, attaching to the host by many small, specialized roots (haustoria) along stems.

Leaves: Alternate, very small and scale-like, to 2 mm long.

Flowers: Corollas cylindric, papillose in the basal, calyx-enveloped part, calyx thickened and keeled towards the base, calyx lobes triangular to sublanceolate, with acute, often keeled tips, stamens fringed and somewhat shorter than or equalling the corolla lobes, scales reaching to about the middle of the corolla tube, styles slender, longer than the ovary, exserted, ovary superior with 2 chambers, each with 2-ovules, stigmas 2, spheric and persistent, flowers borne on slender pedicels.

Fruits: Globose, circumsessile capsules, easily seperating at the base in a more or less regular line of clevage, capsules enclosed and surmounted by the withered corollas. Seeds 1-4.

Ecology: Found in Arizona in Pinal, Pima, and Yuma counties. Host plants include Boerhaavia and Euphorbia.

Distribution: Arizona, New Mexico; Mexico.

Notes: This strange parasitic plant looks like a yellowish-orange loosely constructed bird's nest on top of plants, sometimes growing large and covering the host plant, drying white and stiff, generally persistent even when desceased, stems when fresh with a slightly rubbery feel. Kearney and Peebles describe this species with cylindric corollas, exserted styles, and a calyx with a thickened, keeled base. Look for this species in Arizona in Pinal, Pima, and Yuma counties, as well as southwestern New Mexico and northwestern Mexico.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher2012

Etymology: Cuscuta is a name of Arabic derivation meaning "dodder"; the meaning of tuberculata is unknown.