SPECIES DESCRIPTION
CUSCUTA PALAESTINA
Family:- CONVOLVULACEAE
Common Names:- None
Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Cuscuta (L) A name used by the botanist Rufinus for dodder, from
Arabic keckout.
Palaestina (L) From Palestine.
General description:- Scrambling and entwining parasitic plant.
Stems:-
1) Very slender, usually reddish, much branched.
Leaves:-
1) Reduced to tiny scales, without chlorophyll.
Flowers:-
1) 1·5-2 mm, usually 4-merous (rarely 3-merous and single flowers in a glomerule
5-merous), sessile; glomerules 4-6 mm in diameter, globose.
2) Calyx, about as long as the corolla-tube, usually reddish;
a) lobes triangular, as long as or shorter than wide, acute, somewhat fleshy,
keeled.
3) Corolla-lobes, usually erect, about as long as the cylindrical tube, acute, often
with cucullate apices.
4) Anthers scarcely exserted.
5) Scales usually reaching the filaments.
6) Styles (including stigmas) about as long as ovary.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule globose, enveloped by the corolla.
2) Seeds c. 1 mm.
Key features:-
1) Styles (including stigmas) equalling or only slightly longer than ovary.
2) Flowers 1·5-2·5 mm; (3-)4-merous.
3) Glomerules 4-6 (-7) mm diam.
4) Calyx-lobes often ± fleshy.
5) Flowers corolla-lobes erect.
Habitat:- Parasitic on a wide variety of dwarf shrubs, (Cistus, Sarcopterium, etc.),
but also on herbs and grasses. 0-1700 m.
Distribution:- Fairly widespread and common across the Mediterranean.
Widespread and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mostly Apr- June.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis
