Volume 10 > Part 3 > Year 2010 > Page 381 > Convolvulaceae > Cuscuta

3. Cuscuta japonica Choisywfo-0001298565

in Zoll., Syst. Verz. Ind. Archip. 130, 184. 1854; Gagnep. & Courchet in Lecomte, Fl. Indo-Chine 4: 312. 1915; R.C.Fang et al. in C.Y.Wu & P.H.Raven, Fl. China 16: 323. 1995; Staples & Traiperm, Thai Forest Bull. (Bot.) 36: 105. 2008. Fig. 16E–G.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Stems yellow or often with purplish spots, 1–2 mm diam., many branched. Inflorescences spicate, ca 3 cm long, axis yellowish; bracts scale-like, broadly ovate, ca 2 mm. Flowers nearly sessile; calyx cupular, ca 2 mm long, whitish, deeply divided, sepals ovate to circular, equal or unequal, purplish tuberculate abaxially, apex acute; corolla greenish white, campanulate to tubular, 3–7 mm, shallowly 5-lobed, lobes erect or reflexed, ovate-triangular, much shorter than tube, apex obtuse; stamens inserted at throat, anthers protruding from corolla, ovate-circular, yellow-orange, filaments very short or absent; staminal scales oblong, fimbriate, reaching middle of tube; ovary globose, smooth, style 1, 2 ovary length, stigma elongated. Capsule ovoid, ca 5 mm, circumscissile near base. Seeds 1–4, brown, 2–2.5 mm, smooth.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai, Phitsanulok.

Distribution : Russia, Japan (type), China, Vietnam, Malaysia.

Ecology : Parasitic on a variety of monocot and dicot hosts, locally common in villages, 350–1,250 m alt. Flowering: October–December.

Notes: This is the first record of Cuscuta japonica in Thailand.